Recap of a busy week

So much to say, where to begin. Let's go chronologically.

I have been having power lunches with all the HUC moms on campus, schmoozing and asking all kinds of questions about being a mom in Cincinnati. I'm also forming all kinds of new friendships! Thanks to Erica, Carri and Shena for the informal lunch-and-learn.

Shabbat this week was lovely, at Beth and Uzi's house. In a sad "wow the stereotype is true" moment, at dinner I ate all the pickles in the dish but one. They were Osem pickles in brine, I couldn't help it! Uzi insisted on giving me a can when we left. So between the Osem and Josh's Fire and Ice pickles, I'm apparently defining a pregnant woman. (But really, pickles can be eaten with everything... alone as a side dish, in a sandwich, in egg salad... so many possibilities).

On Saturday I participated in a panel along with a fifth-year and third-year student talking to the local branch of Women in Reform Judaism. The three of us sat at a table in front of 60 rabbis, cantors, temple presidents, and lay leaders and answered questions ranging from the HUC curriculum to our thoughts on interfaith marriage. It was very interesting, for all parties involved, and I felt quite honored to be a part of it.

On the way home from the panel I called Jonathan and he told me to meet him and Ari at a pub. A pub?! I asked. Yes, "THE Pub." It's the name of a local restaurant/bar. They were enjoying greasy food so I joined them, ordered my Shirley Temple, and we stayed til it got dark just talking about life.

Sunday my third-grade lesson went swimmingly. It was on Passover and the kids really got into acting out the story of Moses and the exodus. The big hit near the end of the day was when we made origami frogs. I had found instructions online, and Jonathan and I had practiced the night before so I could show the kids. It's fascinating to me to watch students participate in different activities and be able to see their strengths and weaknesses; e.g. the best reader in the class could not fold paper at ALL, but the kid who never seems engaged in any other activity finished every step of his frog almost before I finished showing it. I feel badly now; if only I had realized he was that kinesthetic earlier I could have engaged him more throughout the year.

Oh, and as an aside to how much I love kids - when I was asking them what they had done over break (they had had two weeks off of Sunday school), one boy's big news was, "I got a cup for baseball!" I blinked, pausing a second to figure out what he meant. Three or four responses flitted through my mind at once: "Wow, you're really growing up." "Good job, protect yourself well." etc etc. Instead I quashed my smile, said "Mazel tov!" very sincerely, and moved on to the next student. It's just that he was so proud when he told everybody, it was adorable.

Let's see, now we're onto yesterday. Eh. It was fine. It was class and class and more class. I did attend a tutorial from 4:30-6 on how to use my Bibleworks computer program, which was highly worth it in spite of getting home so late. Now I know to how to enlarge my Hebrew fonts and how to copy and text wrap correctly into a Word document!

Today I met with the head of JELC, the Jewish Early Learning Co-op on campus. It takes kids from 3 months to 3 years, and its educational philosophies jibe with my own. The only problem is money; who knew daycare was so expensive?! I understand now why some families remain a single-parent income, because the amount of money a parent would make is about the same that would be spent on childcare.

Spring is here, finally. There are buds on the trees, grass is starting to sprout on lawns. And allergy season is kicking in, it feels like a good handful of my class is sick. Darned flora and fauna.

Last but certainly not least, shout-out to Jessica and Michael, who have started their own Cincinnati restaurant review blog. Go check it out to see which restaurants you want to go to when you come visit us. :)