Life at the Archives

My latest Archival project has been on "secularization and the rabbinate."  My client hired me to track how preaching, counseling, and education have evolved over the years, as taught by HUC.  I've been looking through the catalogs, and it's really interesting to see how the requirements of being a rabbi has changed.  For instance, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, rabbis seemed more academic, with training all from books: heavy heavy loads of Talmud, Midrash, history, philosophy, etc.  Did you know that the very first Education professor at HUC wasn't hired until 1931?  The counseling aspect wasn't brought in until 1939, when they offered one class in "Elements of Pastoral Psychology."  When they offered a class the next year called "Methods of Personal Guidance,"  I was amused to read the fine print: "This course is offered at the request of the Cincinnati Christian Educators’ Association and is open only to ministers and professional religious workers."

 

It's so neat to track the development of the movement through history - like, after World War II when Judaism was in the midst of major changes itself, what with suburbia and new synagogues everywhere, there was a huge change in curriculum, with all of a sudden way less emphasis on strict Talmud/history stuff.  That one Education course from 1931?  In 1943 it got expanded to six seminars and a required class on religious school curriculum.  Post-war there was a whole new area called "Social Work" with offerings ranging from "social justice in traditional texts" to field courses where students volunteered with various local agencies.  You can also tell that Classical Reform and formal sermon-giving was on its way out - HUC dropped the six required "Elocution" classes and instead offered two classes in Public Speaking.  The huge "Homiletics" section became merged with academic learning, into "Midrash and Homiletics."  

I'm only in the 1950s now, and I intend to go all the way to the present.  I wonder when "Leadership and organizational management" classes began to be offered?  Or practicum courses like "Life Cycle Liturgy," where I learned how to officiate at a funeral?  I've really been enjoying it - I can't wait til my client actually publishes his paper to see the final product, and his overall analysis.

And of course I can't mention AJA work without mentioning my constant companion.  Ari has come with me the past few days, and will accompany me next week as well.  And by "with me" I mean that he sleeps on my chest in the wrap, plays with toys on the floor, and usually once a visit gets taken off by a whole bunch of staff to go touring.  

 I didn't dare take him out of the carrier when he passed out today - it was much easier just to lay the whole thing down!  Quilt courtesy of Sheryl.

Archivist in the making!  Here he is helping Kevin, senior archivist of research and collections.  Not the best picture of either of them, but oy, you should have heard the giggles coming from that office...

The time has come

I need to accept that my life has gone from this:

(2006)

To this:

(2011)

Amazing what a difference five years can make.  So I finally bit the bullet.  I cleaned out my entire closet and got rid of all my size 2's and 4's.  Even if I do lose all the baby weight, my hips are just never gonna go back.  Life is too irrevocably changed.  Cutting my hair was indicative of that final acceptance.

Thankfully, neither the haircut nor the closet-cleaning hurt as much as I thought they would.

(And thank you to Nicole for giving me the guts to post this!)

Rocket launching!

All set to launch!

Yay, I caught up with it after landing!

Umm... now what do I do with it?

Might as well let Mommy collect it while I drink.  Rocket launching is thirsty business.

It went over 300 feet in the air!

A tale of two projects

This weekend Jonathan and I were determined to do two projects with Xander.  I was going to do an art project with recycled construction paper.   Jonathan was going to build a rocket.

My project arose out of a need to be "green":  Xander is learning how to use scissors at school, and for the past few days has come home with little plastic baggies full of cut-up construction paper.  I wanted to use them for a good purpose, and for something other than the standard preschool collage.  So I found this site that explains how to make clay out of construction paper scraps.  I figured it would be a fun activity, and it would also piggyback on a Mr. Roger's special where Mr. Rogers and his neighbor take a tour of a construction paper factory.  Xander asks to watch it over and over.

The first step was to cut all the paper into even smaller pieces.

We needed lots of paper.

Next up came soaking the paper, for about 20 minutes.  This involved lots of stirring to make sure all the paper was wet.

We then transferred the wet paper into the blender, for a quick 2-minute blend.  At this point Xander instructed Jonathan to please take Ari to the living room, because "it will be loud.  Ari will cry."  (Xander then left to the living room too, so Jonathan held both of them.)

This part here is where it started to go bad.  You see those few pieces of green construction paper in the blender?  I had put all the colors in together.  I hadn't thought far enough ahead to realize that green paper + pink paper + yellow paper + red paper + orange paper = one very, very ugly color.  The final pulp looked disgusting.  The recipe told us to strain the water out of the pulp next... but my tidy child took one look at the brown mess in the bowl and utterly refused to put his hands in it.  So I did it instead.  His response, after I started to squish it?  "Mommy, your hands are dirty!  You need napkin."

Sigh.

But I was determined.  We plunged onward.  I got out all our cookie cutters, and we made shapes with the clay.

See the color?  Gross.  The shapes included menorahs, stars, hearts, dogs, and dreidels.  

Next we took our shapes outside to leave them to dry overnight, with the intent of painting them the next morning.  Jonathan then commenced his project with Xander: rocket building 101. 

Admittedly, Jonathan did most of the actual work, as it was pretty complicated, but Xander did love handing him things.  

Behold the finished product.  The best line of the night, after the rocket was finished:  "Mommy, Mommy, the rocket will go FAST!  Like MiniCooper!!"

Like the clay figures, the rocket was intended to be a two-day project as well.  The glue needed to dry overnight, and then today we were going to go to the park.  

I'm sure you can guess what happened next.

Complete, epic, project FAIL.

It rained.

I didn't rescue the clay figures early enough in the storm, so they were soggy and couldn't be painted.

It didn't even matter, because it turned out the only paint I had on hand was watercolor.

That didn't matter either, because the figures looked so disgusting Xander didn't even want to paint them.

We threw the figures away.

Due to said rain, the park was out of the question.  So no rocket launching either.

Instead the rocket sat there on the table, tempting cats and boy alike.  Xander was not happy that we had to reschedule for tomorrow.

So what did we end up doing?  Why, we drowned our sorrows in FOOD!  

Yes, we went on a baking frenzy.  We ended up with one small cake, eight muffin cakes in animal shapes (I love this pan), and homemade frosting.  Xander was seemingly oblivious to the fact that we were making chocolate cake, and time and again requested "pink cake."  After dinner, when the cakes had cooled, we were able to satisfy that need at least: he put one tiny drop of red food coloring in the vanilla frosting, and it came out as pink as pink could be.

So in the end, the day turned out fine.

All hail post-cake cuddles!

He's not even three yet!

As Jonathan and I sat in the kitchen with Ari, Xander hopped down from his seat, went to the living room, turned on the Playstation, inserted a DVD, and started up Mr. Rogers.

WOW.

Good side: he can entertain himself.  He will most likely fix my computer one day.  In five years.

Bad side:  Electronics are no longer secure.  Today Mr. Rogers... tomorrow the NSA!

Heat, teething, Jews, and grammar

1) Ari's about four months old.  As of today, teething has commenced.  Pray for us.  I'm hoping against hope that Sophie the wonder giraffe is as good as her press.  So far he chomps dutifully on her ears and feet, but still cries.


2) Whenever I ask Jonathan, "what are you thinking?" I'm usually surprised.  One time he said he was thinking about how big spiders grow in comparable areas of the country.  Another time he was wondering about the ancient Roman police force; we always heard about the Legions, he said, but that was national. What, if anything, did Rome do for its own city?

On the other hand, when Jonathan asks me what I'm thinking (which I admit is rather rare, because I'm a chatterbox and usually don't give him the chance to ask), it's mostly quite boring: a grocery list, to do's for tomorrow, that kind of thing.  But last night I had paused, deep in thought, and so he asked me.  I stammered a bit, then blushed:  I had spent almost ten minutes contemplating the usage of the word "comprise" versus "comprising" in a sentence.  What were the ramifications and implications of the simple present tense versus the gerund?


3) Hooray for Obama's repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell!


4) If someone new comes into the house and Xander likes them, he gives them a tour of all his best toys.  Tonight I was puppeting Thomas the Train, and Xander was having a conversation with "Thomas" about his train set.  The conversation soon took a turn:

"Thomas, do you see this drill?  It's for fixing things.  I have a drill bit.  This is a balloon, it's for hitting.  I can hit it high. [Bangs balloon.] See it?!  It's high.   This is my colander.  It's for taking water out of spaghetti.  And for being a space hat.  [Puts colander on his head.]  This is my piano.  It's for making music.  [Bangs piano to produce a cacophony of sound.]  This is my front loader. It's for scooping dirt. [Lifts and lowers handle enthusiastically, pantomiming dirt being scooped].  This is Bear.  He's white, and big.  For cuddling!  [Hugs stuffed polar bear.]"

It went on for a few items more. It was all I could do to keep a straight face and have Thomas go "um-hm" during the pauses.



5)  This article in The Jewish Daily Forward made me sad and hopeful at the same time.  I was the last student rabbi in Mattoon, IL, but they're still going on without me.  What does it mean for a congregation to close its doors?  How much of our memories are wrapped up in places versus in ideas?  If the youth go somewhere else, but remain Jewish, can we really say that it's a loss?

Struggling To Survive

Small Jewish Communities Across the U.S. Are Fighting To Stay Afloat

6) According to the Weather Channel, it was 95 degrees today but felt like 105.  I believe it.  I stayed outside only long enough to buckle the kids in and out of the car.  It was a hot, humid swamp.  Even the preschool forbade the kids from playing outside, they had to run around indoors at the gym.  So after inwardly complaining all day about the heat... I walked inside my house and promptly got goosebumps from the air-conditioning.  Body temperature, why must you be so fickle?

La dee da

My mother-in-law is in town. Besides getting us fabulous cooking accoutrements (yay for a new mixer!) she took Xander to a toy store. What was his favorite purchase, the thing he had to have immediately? A small push broom.  Why, you ask?  Because in one of his favorite Mr. Rogers episodes, Mr. Rogers interviews the cast of Stomp, and they make music with brooms (see clip).  So what have we been doing at home all night?  Stomping with brooms.  I was impressed though, he did remember a couple of the rhythms.

Here are some random pictures from the last week:

Xander was doing something fascinating to the side of the frame (I think eating cherries), hence Ari's distracted look.

Close-up of the shirt.  He's waving at the camera. :)

Xander and his fire truck hat that he made at school.  Sunglasses courtesy of my sister.

Sans sunglasses, with smile.

SO excited it's morning!!

Simcha capitalizes on Ari's bedtime to take the comfiest seat in the house.

All I do is complain that I'm not losing the pregnancy weight...

So of course, I just have to try the new Rolo's McFlurries at McDonald's...

And then French toast challah just has to be drizzled liberally with syrup...

And s'more fixings had a whole kiosk to themselves at Kroger, and I couldn't just let that chocolate languish...


Because you know, Ari's only in 9-month clothing.  Obviously he's deprived of nutrition.  I figure, the more I eat, the more he thrives, right?

:-)

Overcoming fear

I haven't been depressed lately, but I have been down, a little.  After trying to figure out why, I realize that I've been dealing with a lot of fear.  School starts up again in about a month.  Xander will stay at his preschool, but we're gonna have to figure out childcare for Ari.  No matter where he is (with Jonathan, a nanny-share, a program), he won't be with me.  And he hates eating without me.  I didn't have to go back to school full-time with Xander til he was nine months old, while Ari will be five months.  I'm not sure how my strong commitment to nursing will work with a child who hates a bottle.. and a mother who will be involved in classes, thesis-writing, and an internship at the AJA.

But I also think it's bigger than that.  I'm being ordained in May, and hope to become the family breadwinner.  All my friends I've talked to since their ordination (whether in 2003 or last month) say that rabbinic work is BUSY.  Hours upon hours busy.  And I'm looking forward to it, I really am.  But I still wonder... how can I be the wife and mother I want to be if I'm supposed to put my congregation first?  On the other hand, how can I be the rabbi I want to be if my family comes first?  Back before I got into HUC, in my interview in fact, I remember a community rabbi asked me what I thought my biggest problem or issue with the rabbinate would be.  I said "balance."  Even then, I knew it would be a problem.  And now here I am.  So far I've been able to manage because for the most part, school and student pulpits was dealt with on my own time.  But being a full-fledged rabbi seems different.  

And then tonight I found a godsend.  Or at least, one of those things that appears when you need it most, that makes me think, yes, there is an intervening God or guardian angel or something.  I followed a link on Facebook and found this site:  Ima on and off the bima: real-life Jewish parenting and living.   "Ima" is Hebrew for "Mother" or "mom."  The woman who writes the blog is a rabbi with four kids, the youngest of them still an infant.  I read her blog for hours, partly while nursing Ari (the irony).  Then I sent her a long email.  I hope she writes back.

I'm also trying to take care of myself; last weekend I took a few hours out to go to Cincinnati Pride; today I let myself be "kidnapped" by Maura for some girl time and shopping.  Little things like this won't fix the problem... but at least it's a start.   And that's really all I can do, isn't it?

Deathly Hallows part 2

By Jonathan

"It all ends" is the tag line, and it does. It may seem sad, except for the fact that it ends in a spectacular way. I have never seen a better end to a series of movies (with the possible exception of Lord of the Rings).

In comparing it to the book, I can honestly say that it's as good, if not a slightly better experience. It tightens up the plot some, better explains some parts that were vague and visually creates the work in a way that the book couldn't. In addition to all that, it was wonderfully directly, fantastically shot, and had superb acting by everyone. The movie had no glaring weak points anywhere.

Seeing it in the theater on opening night was without a doubt the best way to have seen it. The showing we went to was about 1am in the morning and the theater was packed, the lobby buzzing with lines 20 people deep to all the concessions. Death Eaters, Gryffindors, and house elves wandered around everywhere. The HP passion was thick in the air and every scene was felt to the heart by everyone. It short, it was a wonderful show.

(written at 4am 'cause I had to share)