True, I Haven't Been Posting Much

Have you noticed that I haven't posted much? It's ironic that until a couple of years ago I posted daily on both my blogs. Now I can skip a week or two and not even realize it.

What have I been doing?

I've been crocheting as much as I can. I've discovered something fantastic. People will buy my crocheted hats when I offer to donate the money to a charity, tzedakah. I'm going to try that with some of the bags I've crocheted.

I've also crocheted a few "bowls" to use for mishloach manot for Purim. On the Purim holiday we give food gifts, so my bags and bowls are very useful. I've been packing them in my crafts for the past few years.

A friend had suggested hats for tzedakah, and that's another reason I crochet a lot. I've bought some yarn for winter hats on sale recently. You can see me in the picture below wearing one of the hats. I bought more of the same yarn, because a friend wants one just like it.

To be honest I've found it easier to find topics for Shiloh Musings. That's because the politics here is so upsetting, I've had to write about it. Not that post all that frequently there either.

Don't get me wrong. I do stay busy besides crocheting and Facebook etc. I study Tanach/Bible and do mosaics once a week in the program here for senior citizens. 

My Tanach/Bible studies are online, Google Meet and also in Jerusalem. I've been in a study group for about ten years. We used to meet once a week, and now, ever since the COVID lockdown we've been meeting almost every day, though not in person. We used to use Zoom, but now it's Google Meet. I'm also in a monthly Book Club. And I take a short walk at least once a day.

What keeps you busy? Have you missed my blog posts?

Mid-August Blog Carnival

If you're home hiding from the heat, or just tired of all the usual summer reading, try some blogs. They're free and certainly varied enough not to bore you. Curl up on your couch, or pull up a chair, swing on a hammock, stay busy on the bus, train, plane or bed. Wherever you're sitting or lying down enjoy reading some blog posts.

As my norm, I'm just listing titles. Read, comment, share and tell me which is your favorite. If you have any blogs to recommend, don't be shy. I'm always interested in adding to my blog rolls.

Please remember that I'm not responsible for the content of blog posts, other than my own.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name
Optimistic People
Dancing Through Life
The Lost Kitchen, A Book Review
Finding Valuable History under Jerusalem Streets
Time for Rabbi Lau to Dig Up Momma
I Can’t Be Antisemitic Because My Conspiracy Theories Paint Jews As Super-Smart (satire-maybe)
August beer festivals
Memories, Soviet Aliyah to Shiloh
10 reasons why it is easy to be a vegan in Israel
Easy Filling Vegetable Lentil Soup
Getting Carried Away
The Writings of Ahava Emunah Lange: Happy New Year
Chodesh Ellul Tov, 5779, September 1, 2019
The Solution to BDS and Growing Antisemitism is Counter-Intuitive
STEVE KRAMER – GLAD YOU’RE NOT COMING
Lieberman signs a vote-sharing deal with Gantz and Lapid's party
A Matter of Origin
Dance Festival Flyer 1964

Which was your favorite? Tell me which and why in the comments, thanks.

The Lost Kitchen, A Book Review

Miriam Green, author of The Lost Kitchen
and I finally met in person

Last week while waiting for one of the classes to begin at Herzog College's amazing Tanach/Bible Yemei Iyun, I heard my name called. It was Miriam Green, fellow blogger and facebook friend. We finally got to meet in person f2f. I've been a fan of Miriam's blog The Lost Kitchen for the longest time. First of all it's a well-written honest blog. It's posted weekly and follows the saga of Miriam's mother's life with Alzheimer’s. Each post is accompanied by a recipe.

Alzheimer’s and/or one (or more) of the more difficult to diagnose/name dementias dominated both my parents' final years, so I'm neither objective nor inexperienced when it comes to the topic.

The Lost Kitchen is a brilliant way of titling the blog, book and Miriam's mother, Naomi. One of the first skills many people lose is caring for themselves, knowing what to shop for, remembering to turn off the stove, prepare food and even remembering to eat.

Green's book opens with her mother's diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. I was really spooked by the fact that her mother was younger than I am now. We're spared the difficult period before that made them suspect that something was very wrong and getting worse. The focus of The Lost Kitchen is how Jack, her father, and Miriam deal with the constant deterioration, challenges and dilemmas of Naomi's Alzheimer’s. Miriam's original idea was to write a cookbook chronicling Jack's unplanned introduction to cooking and the recipes he has adopted for himself as cook.

Even though I'm a loyal follower of the The Lost Kitchen blog, I found reading the book to be a new experience. I wasn't bored. The Lost Kitchen book isn't a simple compilation of the blog. Besides recipes, there are poems. If you like the blog, you'll love the book. And if you've never read the blog you'll find the book a wonderful loving memoir following the gradual loss of a loving mother.

The Lost Kitchen begins after the diagnosis, when Jack is still able to care for Naomi.  At first he manages with Miriam's weekly visits, but then as the Alzheimer’s gets worse, it's clear he needs more help and then even more. Their story is honestly and sensitively told by Miriam.

Dealing with Alzheimer’s seems to be a growing genre as people live longer, and their bodies outlive their cognitive abilities. I reviewed My Mom My Hero by Lisa Hirsch a few years ago, which was written by a childhood friend. Last I heard, her mother is still alive.

I recommend reading The Lost Kitchen, whether you've had to deal with a loved one's Alzheimer’s or any other form of dementia or not. After a half a century in Israel, I sometimes forget that there's a whole other world out there in other countries, and life can be very different. The Lost Kitchen is also a Jewish Israeli story, because the assistance, facilities, society and health care system are probably specific to Israel. Of course the family dynamics and dementia itself, no matter what the specific diagnosis are international. Dementia can happen to anyone, anyplace and any age, due to all sorts of causes.

Miriam Green has written a valuable and unique book, a universal story. As a bonus you get a cookbook, which is valuable on its own. Unlike many cookbooks, this one has easy to follow recipes, without too many exotic, hard to find ingredients. The poems add a gentle touch. Yes, if I haven't been clear, I highly recommend buying The Lost Kitchen for yourself or as a gift for others.

Product details

• Paperback: 274 pages
• Publisher: Black Opal Books (May 4, 2019)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1644370816
• ISBN-13: 978-1644370810
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

The Ladies Blog

In honor of the fact that my friend Sharon Katz has opened/begun a new blog, I've decided to post a round-up of blogs. They are all "owned" by Jewish women mostly in Israel, and many of the bloggers are actually personal friends of mine. Each of these blogs is profoundly different. They reflect on the different personalities of the bloggers and what purpose the blogger has for blogging.

Some blogs, like my own, are updated daily or a few times a week. Other bloggers blog once a week or even less frequently. Generally blogs are begun with great expectations, which sometimes fizzle out pretty quickly. I must say that some of my most favorite blogs have died a gentle death and haven't been updated for a year or more. I miss them.

In this little blog round-up, I'll list titles of posts from the past week or so. Please click them to access and read them. Comments are always appreciated by bloggers.

Enjoy, and please "share" this post so that others can get to know the bloggers. Honestly, I don't consider blogging to be a dying genre of social media. And just to remind you that I'm not responsible for the content of other blogs.

Yes, This STAGE of Life
What Happened to our Prayers?
About My Not Posting
Come, Children, Sing Shema' Yisrael!
Second Best
Are you ever too old to make aliyah?
NOT Giving Up Is Painful Too...
“AFTER THE HOLIDAYS(ACHAREI HACHAGIM)”-BACK TO ROUTINE????
Oops, I did it again.
The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Vegetables
By Light of Hidden Candles - a review
Memories are a Wonderful Gift......
Paleo Vegan Almond Flour Biscotti Recipe
Food Recall! (Israel) (Salmon and Herring)
Condolences and Prayers for the Victims of More Violence
Jerusalem Biennale: Unusual Museum & Arts

I'm not quite sure why, but I didn't include my own blogs in this roundup. I trust that you're familiar with them already.

If you'd like me to post more roundups like this on, please let me know. And if you want to recommend a blog, please send the link in a comment. Thank you

Three out of Six 3/6 Yet Again!

a recent selfie taken at Israel Museum

Arutz 7 readers read my blog!

Popular Posts

Palestine: Fictional Country/People

14

Urgent: Death for terrorists, or danger for Israel??

1

Republicans Shooting Themselves in The Foot!

21

Israel Front and Center in this Election

3

Did Buji Fall for a "Fake" by Bibi?

3

Israel, happiness and the consequence of Jew-hate

3

As you can see, I've changed the name...

I may still tweak it a bit, but I'm going with the Jewish Grandmother theme.

I cropped an old picture of some of my grandkids as a banner. It's sufficiently old not to be very recognizable.

That will change too. And yes, I changed the colors to match the photo.

What do you think?

I Want Your Opinion, Thanks!

As I blogged the other day, for years already I've felt the need to change the name of this blog. The name doesn't really bring in readers nor give even a hint of what type of posts you'll find here.

I'll have to stop using this gorgeous picture as my banner, but I can set it up on the bottom of the blog, rather than the top. 

This blog, as opposed to Shiloh Musings is not political, though it is serious. I used to actually post my satire here, which I wrote by the name of Baile Rochel, which is my real Jewish name. I include more about the family, recipes, restaurant reviews and, yes, of course only kosher. There's more about ordinary life in Israel, more specifically in Shiloh.

I don't plan on changing the content of the blog at all, just its name.

Here are names I'm thinking of for this blog:

• Everything but the kitchen sink
• Thanks
• me, unique and eccentric
• IMHO...
• According to This Jewish Grandmother...

I'd appreciate your vote for one of the names, thanks. Yes, please vote in the comments or in the poll on the sidebar. Thank you!

I'm Not as Anonymous as I Had Thought...

I'm pretty much a nobody, OK, maybe not in the Jewish blogging world. But there really are many people who consider my husband the "celebrity" and expect me to play "Pat Nixon."

This year, when we found that all of our kids had "other plans" for the seder, and none were going to spend it with us, I knew that the time had come for us to somehow either get invited or find a few friends in similar positions and do the seder together. Stage one for this was for me and my husband to answer "dunno," or:

"This year we haven't a clue."

I guess it sort of sounded like a euphemism for:

"We're hoping that we'll be invited by someone."

And in the end a "someone" actually did invite us. Actually a few "someones" by the time Passover had rolled around. It was my husband who landed the winning invitation, and I kept telling people that I didn't know the people. But it ended up that our host and I had been acquainted almost half a century ago. That's even before my husband had met him, and even before I had met my husband. We had a wonderful time there and hope that we were good guests, well-behaved.

Our trip home ended up being more complicated than planned, because we ended up missing the bus by a few seconds and had to tremp. I got the first ride, which took me to Ofra. From there I got a ride to the Shiloh Junction. And from there another ride to the Shiloh-Shvut Rachel Junction, and there I ended up waiting and waiting. I reached the point when I had decided that if one more car passes me without stopping, I'm just going to walk straight up, and believe me it it straight up, to my house. So I zipped up my coat to be ready to march.  It was cold. And just then a car turned and stopped. I didn't know the person, but he almost stammered my name. He used to read my blogs.

He was on his way to see a neighbor of mine and  very happy to take me home.

It seems that I'm a bit more well-know than I had thought.

Why Blog? It's an International Community!

With the advent of other forms of magical communication such as facebook, twitter, skyping etc., people have been predicting the end of blogging.  Blogging is more than sending a line or two into the magic, mysterious cyber world via Wi-Fi, cellphone waves etc.

Many of us bloggers are either actual writers, photographers, journalists, public relations aka social media experts or wannabes of one or more of the above.  And there are your "just ordinary people" with a story to tell, a writing talent and people saying:

"You should start a blog."

Some blogs really take off and become popular, even money-making, and others just schlepp along with a small group of followers who manage to catch the blogger at just the moment he/she thinks it's time to quit with a:

"I love your blog.  It really speaks to me. Please don't stop."

How do they know that we continue blogging just to hear/read that?  Many of us have become "friends," community over the years, even if we've never met f2f face to face.  And there are those we actually know in real life and discover more from their blogs.  I have a combination of that on my "blog rolls," the list of blogs on the sidebar of my two blogs, this one and Shiloh Musings.

Many of us blog a combination of personal and political, whatever is on our minds and new in our lives.

Paula blogged of a death in her family, A Woman of Courage and Strength.  HaMakom yenachem, may G-d comfort....
Seraphic Secret gets a mazaltov on the birth of a grandson.

Mazaltov and refuah shleimah to Geuliyah on the birth of her twins,

מיה אמונה בת גאוליה שומרונה
זהר אושר אביה בת גאוליה שומרונה

Our latest news is the marriage of our son.

Jennifer has been keeping us informed of her aliyah adventures, Skyping! from their temporary abode in a mercaz klita in northern Israel.

Blogging isn't dead. That's one of the reasons all sorts of mainstream press has added blogs on its internet sites.  I've had blogging rights on a few internet newspapers.  Of late, I can be found on the Jewish Press blog section.  They choose the posts from my blogs.  I stopped blogging on a different paper, because they demanded only original material written for their site.  And considering that they certainly didn't pay me anything, it reeked of chutzpah to make demands.

I like the independence of blogging what I want.  My blogs are my own newspapers.  I decide what's "fit to print."  I hope you enjoy reading my blogs.  Please share the links and comment in the comments, thanks.

Facebook Friending, Accept All, or Keep Up Some Barriers?

Just a reminder to send in your posts (http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_17508.html) to be included in the next Havel Havelim, thanks.

Some of you readers are facebook friends of mine, and some of you even clicked this post because I mentioned it on my facebook status.  To be frank that's why I joined facebook, to promote my blogs, but as I got to know fb, I began to treasure the personal, family and friend-real friend aspect of it.  Most of my children, along with cousins and their kids are facebook friends, and I quickly began to limit the amount of people I agreed to "friend."  Suddenly I put up barriers.  If I didn't "know" someone either personally or their blog or want to know them as a person, I refused to accept their fb friendship.

Last night I was at a workshop (here in Shiloh) about using social media for Hasbara, Israel's information campaign.  Now, that is why I opened an account with facebook.  The young man who spoke, from something called "newmedia," if I got the name right, said that to make a splash, have your message get out to the maximum of people, you must have masses and masses of facebook friends.  If I do that, I will offend my kids and confuse family.  Of course I do post links to my blog posts, even the most extreme posts, or especially the most extreme posts.  My political opinions are far from Center.

I have a lot to think about.  Your opinions are welcome.

And the new day dawns...

I could barely sleep last night. I was in suspense. Would the new cellphone's alarm go off automatically, like the old one, or would I have to get an alarm clock suitable for Shabbat? My old cellphone had the best alarm for Shabbat. It went off after making noise. One burst of annoyance, and then silence. And I'm the type to get up on time and easily, so I don't need the nudge, or snooze setting.

I must have been waiting, awake in bed, at least forty minutes until it make its peculiar sounds and then, silence. It turned off, all by itself. Hurray! Then I went into the kitchen to make my coffee, pour some water to drink and then to the den to blog and whatever. I left the phone over the bed, confident that all would be fine.

Then my husband walked into the den:

Your alarm is ringing again.

No! No! NO! and NO!

It's not fair! Now I have to get a new watch, since the automatic battery saver blackens the screen when the phone isn't in use, so I can't use it as a clock in the classroom. And I have to get an alarm clock for Shabbat in order to wake up on time.

There's another automatic thing I've noticed on the phone. The keyboard locks automatically. That's a good safety mechanism for the phone.

OK, I shouldn't complain. Baruch Hashem, I can afford to buy these things when I need to. And I have a special treat planned for today. "The boy from the Bronx," as I called him when I used to write my "Baile Rochel's" for Counterpoint over twenty years ago, is in Israel, and G-d willing I'll see him this afternoon. Classes were cancelled--very convenient. Baruch Hashem! Maybe he can help me figure it out. He got our shelves and pictures up twenty-one years ago when we moved into this house!

I gave in!

Just call me a wimp!

I'll tell you what happened. I just decided,

this is only a blog, it's
not worth getting all hysterical about. You know, it's not life and death,
just a bloody blog, if you'll excuse my language!

I just hope that beta has a beta spellcheck!

So far, it seems pretty similar.

You have to choose your battles wisely, and I decided not to fight this one. So, I guess when they start stopping me from oldblogging Shiloh Musings, I'll switch.

I guess resuming my walking with a friend this morning put me in a more rational state of mind.

PS The spellcheck is better in beta!