And Yadda Yadda Yadda … I Made Aliyah

I’m writing this while it’s still very fresh. Because I feel like I need to process it all. Earlier this week I was engaged in a heated discussion in the comments section of a fellow blogger and fellow mom of food allergic kids about how Israel doesn’t take food… Read more »

Universal Health Care is not all Peaches and Herb, as I once thought. (And yes, by Peaches and Herb, I mean peaches and cream.  But ever since I accidentally once said “peaches and herb” (with a soft h) when I really meant peaches and cream, I am compelled to… Read more »

One of the first blogs I wrote about my Aliyah experience was a basic explanation of why we moved to Hannaton, and centered around our desire to live in an intentional community. I wrote this post less than a month after landing in Israel and only 12 days into… Read more »

I am 38 years old. Now you know. But I don’t know. I don’t know how I can possibly be 38 years old. Firstly, because in my mind, my mother is 38 years old. And physics teaches us that my mom and I can’t be the same age. In… Read more »

I really love the word alternative. A little too much, probably. When I imagine the word alternative in my mind it’s pure white. It represents something good, something spiritual, something I can connect too. Like Yom Kippur. Like reflection. Contemplation. Healing. Forgiveness. Fasting. When I let my mind rest,… Read more »

What to do when the novelty wears off? This is the question I didn’t realize I have been asking myself all summer. What happens after you’ve lived in a new country for a full year, a full four seasons? What happens when you’re no longer the hot new family… Read more »

Do you celebrate Rosh Hashana like your parents did? What do you borrow from the High Holiday celebrations of your youth? This is what I am thinking today on Rosh Hashana 5773, Day Two. It occurred to me this morning, the second day of the new Jewish Year that we… Read more »

I just added a new category to my blog: War. I hesitated before I clicked. I’m a superstitious kind of girl, for one. And, two, I do think our thoughts impact our reality. If I add a war category to my blog, how does that impact my reality? Call… Read more »

Every other week I have the distinct pleasure of partaking in a woman’s group in the community in which I live in Northern Israel. The woman’s group, which was informally started almost a year ago and has grown to a bi-weekly gathering of about 10 – 12 women, has… Read more »

When someone dies, we often use that opportunity to express how we truly feel about them. And how we truly feel about them is often… beautiful. “You were a light in my life.” “I’m so grateful we were friends.” “Thank you for making a difference in the world.” It… Read more »

Do you remember where you were during the September 11 attacks in the United States? Do you remember where you were during the Holocaust? Think now to how you relate to the victims of the 9/11 attacks compared to how you relate to the victims of the Holocaust. If… Read more »

Hours ago I was at the computer giggling, putting the finishing touches on a post explaining why I want to be like comedienne Sarah Silverman. I was feeling very bold and brave as I pressed “publish”; even daring with my mind anonymous internet lunatics to post crazy biblically-inspired apocalyptic… Read more »

When I was a girl, I was a motor mouth. How do I know this? Because Ms. Levin, my second grade teacher told me so. Seriously, my nickname in second grade was Motor Mouth, a moniker craftily created by my teacher at the time, who occasionally relented to my… Read more »

I’ve taken a liking to Twitter. It took me three years of pretending to like Twitter to finally like it. But I do. And now I have fallen out of rank and file with the folks who spend all day commenting on friends’ kids’ photos on Facebook, but sneer… Read more »

The VIP bloggers sit for a photo opp with President Shimon Peres (I'm sitting on the right)

In another lifetime, I was a budding talking head. I arrived in Washington, DC, as an undergrad with the intention of studying political communications. But one boring “History of Journalism” class later I switched to archaeology. And one boring “Introduction to Archaeology” class after that I switched to international… Read more »

They say an oleh is truly settled here when he starts buying Israeli deodorant instead of importing American roll-on via generous relatives, or when he finally settles for chunk light tuna instead of white albacore. For sure, a girl’s showing signs of improvement when she commits to an Israeli… Read more »

There is so much I didn’t know or understand about Israel until I lived here. That may sound obvious, but it wasn’t obvious to me. After all, I had visited this country six times before I lived here. I majored in International Politics with a concentration in Middle Eastern… Read more »

New language acquisition is a journey that is part concentration, part commitment, and part willingness to look stupid. Do not move to a non-English speaking country if you are proud. Until you master the native language, you spend most of your interactions with locals looking or acting like the… Read more »

So I was thinking about the zombie apocalypse the other day after reading the story about the Florida man who was shot while attempting to eat another man’s face. I was tweeting about it with comedian Rachel Dratch (okay fine, I was retweeting Rachel Dratch, who doesn’t know I exist…yet), and felt once… Read more »

My barefoot daughter walking along the sidewalk of our kibbutz

Ode to Found Love on Kibbutz Flowers, dirt, and stray cats Dogs that bark at midnight The cow-infused downwind from the refet at 4:30 pm… My children at 4:30 pm… My husband at 4:30 pm… Taking the trash out in my pajamas Dressing up in grownup clothes for Shabbat… Read more »