All Atoned and Starting Fresh

Shana Tova once more, Happy New Year and New Beginnings. This weekend was a bit of a whirlwind, although not actually horribly busy.

Friday, I got in THE MOOD to cook, having invited not one but two families for dinner - both the moms are my dear friends, and both are FOODIES. So Thursday at the Farmer's Market, I got all sorts of fresh stuff, and Friday I made some delicious Eggplant Parmesan. I can't make it too often, since I personally cannot eat it (eggplant is a horrible migraine trigger for me; the food has to be really delicious [like my uncle's fried eggplant] to be worth the headache). I made one huge pan, plus a smaller loaf size without dredging the slices in flour. The house smelled Yummy!

I also got a little carried away, and after making homemade challah, I decided to make homemade pasta! It's fun, but a lot of work. And I ran out of counter space, so when Sam helped me roll the dough through the slicer, it all just piled up on the tray and became one large clump - which meant re-rolling it piece by piece before tossing it into the water.

But it was all yummy, and Shabbos dinner was extra fun for having three families instead of two. Five out of the seven kids are at the day school, and the littlest boy is Sofia's dearest friend. And Sofia would gladly trade me for either of these two moms in a heartbeat!

Saturday, we were a bit worn out and decided to sleep a little later (well, all relative - the kids were up at 6, as usual, but David and I took turns going back to sleep off and on for the morning). Then David took Sam off for an errand (Sam has decided he wants to start building model aircrafts), and I got all the bikes into/onto the car and filled up the tires. Then we all met at Cushing Park, a nice wide paved stretch, 1.5 miles around, in Framingham, and did some nice bike riding (with stops at the two playgrounds in between). Poor Sofia: at one point, I was trying to get something out of the car, and had propped up my bike...with her on it...and she fell over! Fortunately she landed on the grass, but we spent the next ten minutes hugging and crying together.

We had family movie night (although Micah didn't like the movie, so he watched something else downstairs and fell asleep on the couch).

Sunday, soccer was canceled because of the rain, so we had a relaxed morning. I got out to the grocery store for a while. Then Laura and Lilie arrived, we all got dressed, and went to my friend C's house for erev Yom Kippur dinner. Yummy as ever, and lots of fun.

Then off to services. I think everything went well again. On Monday morning, the rabbi and I totally screwed up by not having people turn to the correct page for the Shacharit Amidah, but we covered well by having folks do the "wrong" one silently, and then picking up together on the correct page. Whew.

Sam managed to fast the entire day, although I forced him to drink some orange juice. I was not happy that he fasted the whole time - I even pointed out the halachic ruling that says he is too young (not until age 11). So OJ was the compromise.

Micah, on the other hand, wanted to fast but was definitely too young, and once he started eating, he kept finding more and more things he wanted.

It was a lovely day again, and I got home about an hour before they all did (David takes them to Temple Israel in the mornings, where there are age-appropriate children's services for everyone), so I sat on the front porch and fell asleep! Nice relaxing afternoon, then back to my shul for the evening service. I had the boys and my friend's two kids lead the Ashrei, which was very well received. And Micah blew an exceptionally long Tekiah Gedolah on his shofar - I think he may have taken an extra breath.

Break-fast was just us back at home, racing to get Sofia to bed and Laura & Lilie off to CT.

Here are my girls:


Taking a snack break:


Miss Lilie:



Oh, and please don't forget: our Buddy Walk is October 11 - please sponsor us, and join Team Sofia if you can!