For a holiday packed with symbolism, there was nothing particularly significant about the choice of this year’s seder theme at my house, “Passover on a Stick.” My dear friend Cindy and I were entertaining ourselves over cake pops (what’s up with that trend?!) at a Bat Mitzvah not long ago, when she got a gleam […]

I was out for a walk early this morning when an old man in an I Heart Jesus baseball cap tried to hand me some propaganda. From the Things-I’m-Not-Particularly-Proud-Of category, I’ll admit that I wasn’t very nice. “I am SO NOT INTERESTED,” I huffed (and puffed), rushing past him. “Stop bothering people!” I was in […]

I don’t have a lot of romantic notions about camping — except when it comes to Annabelle. I’d like to think that she’ll look back on our trip last week as part of the Summer She Turned 9 — the summer she danced with her Gaga, performed in a play version of “Diary of A […]

Today is Yom Kippur. It is the Day of Atonement — the heaviest hitter of the Jewish holidays. The day you apologize and the day you remember. Today, my dear and oft-mentioned friend Deborah posted a poem on her Facebook page. Today, I was going to post the recipe I used for my (burned) Rosh Hashana challah, […]

Lately, I’ve been telling people that Annabelle won’t be going to religious school this year because she’ll be attending the church of dance, instead. I’m not really kidding. This year, Saturday morning class has been joined by Wednesday afternoon class (this time with my mom, who runs the studio — how could I resist?) and […]

It smelled like poo in temple this morning, but that’s understandable, since we were at the children’s service. I’ve been meaning to take the girls to a “tot shabbat” forever, so I was pleased when my dear friend Kacey mentioned her family would be at the Rosh Hashana service. We tagged along, joined by another […]