HAIL in Jerusalem!

On Friday, we drove about an hour from Jerusalem to Kochav Yair where spent Shabbat with wonderful friends, Sam and Adina Cooper. We got to their neighborhood, dropped our bags, and went to the pool. The girls swam for a couple of hours
while Noam and I played in the field outside the pool. The weather was glorious - a perfect day for a swim.  We lounged around all of Shabbat. The kids bounced on their trampoline, we mozied over to their local zoo, and lounged around their yard trying not to get too sunburned. We passed Shvil Yisrael, the national hiking trail which crosses the entire country, and it was covered in cyclamen.

The rosemary lamb was a brilliant creation, the Coca Cola Chicken was a treat for everyone.

And then we returned to Jerusalem after Shabbat under the cover of night.  We woke up this morning to a desert sand storm, followed by blustery rain, followed by ... HAIL!! It's been hailing for hours now. Big pelting, noisy smashing, tinny tapping HAIL. 

And poor Noam keeps getting woken up with a start by each clap of thunder. My Baby Barometer is not happy, to say the least. The skies are rumbling and he's roaring.  Poor guy. 

I think we'll go back to Kochav Yair.  Fast.

Agam Motza

On Friday afternoon, Racheli and I went on a hike with our next door neighbors to a beautiful spot called Agam Motza - the Beit Zayit reservoir. It's just under Beit Zayit, hidden in the hills between Ein Karem and the Sorek Valley. There's a man-made dam there and the water backs up into a sweet lake, with lush foliage on the banks. As we're in the midst of the rainy season in these parts, the banks were super muddy. We spent 2 hours sloshing around in the mud with plenty of flops and giggles.

Racheli enjoying the afternoon

 Just above the banks of the dam is a moshav called Beit Zayit, one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the area. One of the families of Beit Zayit owns a horse farm, and the girls had a wonderful time going up to see the horses.


Our next door neighbor, Lia, with Racheli



Take a look at what Racheli is holding in this photo - it's a porcupine quill! 

Thanks to Don who held down the fort for the few hours before candlelighting so that Racheli and I could go on this completely rejuvenating hike and come into Shabbat with clear minds and plenty of energy. 

Day One Without Abba

Abba got off safe and sound to the States, tiptoed out in the middle of the night.  And then Noam woke up. 4 times. It was like a bad joke.  He did finally go back to sleep soundly at around 5, but that was the first reminder that I am single parenting for a little while over here.  It makes me thankful for the zen-like balance that usually exists in my life.   Dear Don, Thanks for getting up in the middle of the night with the baby. Love, Debra.

And it's a rainy, rainy day. The first one of the year.  But our great carpool partners called to ask if it would be okay if they came to pick up the girls today in their car rather than having me drop them off at their house. They knew that Don was leaving town and are lovely and thoughtful. Hooray for good carpool friends.  Racheli got off without a hitch. Hadara and I waited politely for Noam to wake up (7:45) and then the three of us dripped into our car. Noam's teacher met us at the car so we wouldn't have to park and bring him in (!) and then Hadara and I sang our way over to her school.

Once all children were in their proper places, I returned home and did what any reasonably sane single parent on sabbatical would do in this situation.  I climbed back into bed. 

It seems like Don's flight has landed in Amsterdam as expected and in celebration, I am polishing off the pot of beautiful chicken soup from Shabbat.  The dinner menu is set for the week, the girls' school clothes are all layed out, the dishes are done (for now).  I will continue to lay low, stockpile my strength, and prepare for the unexpected hiccups this week has in store for us.

Friday's Blustery Winter Soup

For anyone suffering from the Blustery Winter Blues, I highly recommend the following concoction. I also highly recommend having Friday's off, so that these concoctions can get concocted. Love from Jerusalem, Debra

Debra’s Super Yummy Israeli Tomato Vegetable Soup

Splash of canola oil for sautéing onions

2 onions, diced

3 zucchini, diced

1 or more carrot, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

2 tomatoes, chopped

6-10 leaves of beetroot, whites diced and leaves sliced into bite-size strips [or spinach if beetroot is not available]

2 teaspoons each of chopped garlic, cilantro, and basil

One small container of tomato paste – around 260 gram

Osem chicken soup mix (pareve)

½ cup red wine

½ jar of your favorite tomato sauce – around 13 ounces (400 gram)

Can of chick peas

Can of black beans (insert any bean that you like here, think of minestrone soup and tinker accordingly)

7-14 Frozen kubbeh, depending on number of people you want to feed [If you don’t have access to kubbeh, consider adding pasta and turning this into a minestrone soup]



Heat oil in bottom of large soup pot. Add diced onion and sauté til translucent (around 3-4 minutes), add diced zucchini, carrot, celery, beet root (white part only) and spices if frozen now, and sauté for 2 minutes. [If spices are fresh, add with liquid.] The diced veggies should take up 1/3 to ½ of the pot. Cover with water and add 1 container tomato paste. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 30 minutes. Add ½ jar of tomato sauce, red wine, and osem pareve chicken soup powder to taste. Add chick peas, black beans, and beetroot leaves and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add kubbeh and cook for at least 40 minutes or as long as you’d like. I cooked mine for about 3 hours and it thickened into an amazing broth, chock full of veggies in every bite. Made around 12 servings.

kubbeh, horses, and updates

 

Okay - I promised everyone a health update. Racheli's hip bone started to hurt her about a month ago. She's not able to walk on her leg without high
levels of ibuprofen, which she's been on for weeks by now.  We're seeing a top pediatric rheumatologist (American trained), and he's sent us out for a bunch of tests to rule out potential bad news. The results from all of Racheli's recent battery of tests are in (bloodwork, x-ray, bone scan, and

ultrasound). Everything looks good.  We're going to do another round of bloodwork next week and then circle back with the doctor in another 10 days to see if she's hopefully feeling better by then.  At the moment, the doctor is really encouraged to see that the results from all the tests came back normal. We'll find out what's causing all the pain in a week or so, but for now it's a nice relief to know what's not causing the trouble :) 

And now onto more relaxing topics of conversation ...

Inside the shuk, there's a restaurant called Ema's Kubbeh Bar. It serves a handful of soups celebrating kubbeh, a brilliant Middle Eastern food - it's a pastry filled with a mixture of beef or lamb, aromatic spices, and pine nuts. They are bundles of joy which sink to the bottom of the bowl, surrounded by soup that only an Israeli mother could conjure up.  My kubbeh soup was filled with squash, swiss chard, and other green delights. You fill your spoon with the soup, take a sip, and your stomach just thanks you. Ema clearly cares, and my tummy will be back there for more.

Don chose a thicker tomato based soup instead of my broth based delight. He smiled from the first spoonful til the bowl was empty.

 

The inside of kubbeh (sometimes called kibbeh)

One of the fun things about Ema's kubbeh bar is that it is right next to Maadanei Tzidkiyahu - the great shuk seller of salatim (Israeli salads). Sitting at our table in the restaurant (read: stall in the middle of the shuk), we could lean over and order salads from Tzidkiyahu.  A win-win situation which prepared us for Shabbat in a most efficient manner. 

I'll take a minute to tell you about one of the highlights of winter break (Chanukah) with the kids. We went to Tzippori  and the girls got to go horseback riding!  Take a look at some of these faces:




 While the kids were waiting for their horses, they had a quick snack - here's a precious moment ...

What could he be thinking???









And then there was a very sweet moment when Don and Noam were bonding while taking in the countryside

 

At the moment, there is vegetable soup on the stove, there are cucumbers turning themselves into cucumber salad, the tehina is marrying the coriander, and the children are sleeping peacefully.  Thank goodness, Shabbat is almost here and good times will be had by all.

I'll finish off tonight's post with a December bloom from up North

Getting out of doing homework???

This note was written by Racheli after flipping out over the amount of math homework that she had to do last week. She even illustrated the note and signed it in Hebrew.  Gotta love kids with developing skills in literacy! 

Having fun in between fevers

I'll start at the end - Noam went to sleep at 5pm with 104F and is now resting calmly. The good news is that he does not need surgery for whatever was going on with his ear over the past few weeks. The not ideal news is that I'm guessing he's going to need tubes. We'll be back at the doctor tomorrow to figure out what this latest fever is about. Hadara is now coming back to herself recovering from an ear infection. Racheli is now asleep, though her tummy and hip hurt.

Now that the background noise has been identified, I'll tell you about some nice parts of the last couple of weeks. I was walking on Derech Beit Lechem last week and passed a sweet nursery - here're a couple of shots of some rakefet (cyclamen?) which are in full bloom this week.



One of my favorite flowers!

 There's a popular Israeli song about the Rakefet that my girls love to hear:

"Cyclamen"


Lyrics: Levin Kipnis
Singer: Esther Ofarim

Under the rock grows like a wonder
A very cute Cyclamen
The shining sun kisses it

And crowns her with a pink crown
The bird whistles
Look at me for a minute
Beautiful Cyclamen hiding under the rock
Hiding from every thing
Bat sheva went out for a walk
The morning was bright
She collected every flower and plant
Her mouth full with a song
Bat sheva sings
Cyclamen speeds up
peeps out for a moment
Who is looking at me here?
That’s Cyclamen ... Bat sheva gets closer slowly
Bat sheva gets off the rock
A beautiful Cyclamen on her chest
A bird whistles the wind folndles
And this song comes to an end.

מתחת לסלע צומחת לפלא

,רקפת נחמדת מאוד
,ושמו מזהרת נושקת עוטרת
.עוטרת לה כתר ורד
"רקפת, רקפת" צפור מצפצפת
"הציצי אך רגע אלי!"
רקפת נהדרת בסלע נסתרת
.נסתרת מנפש כל הי

,יצאה עם הרוח בת-שבע לשוח
;היה אז הבקר בהיר
כל צמח, כל פרח אוספת בדרך
ופיה אל זמר ושיר... ללללל

בת-שבע מזמרת – רקפת ממהרת
...מציצה אך רגע אחד
!מי זאת הנשקפת? אכן זו רקפת
בת-שבע נגשת לאט... ללללל

מסלע ונגבע יורדת בת-שבע
...רקפת-חן על החזה
ציפור מצפצפת ורוח לוטפת
.וסוף כפר לזמר הזה

 
One evening during the week, we went to a street fair on Emek Refaim. There were about 30 performers - magicians, singers, dancers, athletes, comedians, jugglers, etc - up and down the length of the street. There were tables lining both sides of the street filled with crafts and goods for sale. Most of the restaurants from the neighborhood had a booth and were selling their food. The kids LOVED being there and it was a lot of fun to take them. One of the best parts for them was that they could finally eat anything that they saw. Not our usual experience of street fairs.  The first thing that they decided to enjoy is found below ...

The cotton candy was seriously bigger than the girls' heads! They also got their first taste of sufganiot at the fair.  What a treat!  A little boy from Racheli's class was at the fair as well and came up to her to say hello. It was very sweet. Noam got into the "chilling out" action as well. He ate an entire hot pretzel (no mustard available for hot pretzels in Israel).  He strolled around with his feet up smiling at everyone who would look in his direction. 

Another sweet moment this week came just before Shabbat. I was cooking in the kitchen, Hadara was passed out on the couch, and I looked out the kitchen window to our patio where Racheli was doing her homework and Noam was playing. Turns out, Racheli had brought some pretzels outside with her to snack on while doing her work. Well, Mr. Noam saw the pretzels and just scooted right over to her and stood by her side. She fed him pretzels and he kept her company while she did her homework. They must have hung out together for close to 30 minutes.

Hopefully by the next entry, I'll have good news about everyone's health and these kids will be smiling and antibiotic-free.   I'm really hoping that's the case especially since Don is headed to the States in a few days and I'm going to be single parenting for a week.   Love to all ... Deb.