Growing Up Pumpkin a Retrospective

  Underwood Family Farm at Pumpkin Time.
A retrospective

 My Hubby pulling Natan three and Hannah almost one.

 Here Hannah is almost 2. I know the above photo is not a pumpkin photo but such a cute shot and she is at the farm.

This year Hannah is almost three and Natan is five. We went with our friends from the valley it was hot and I don't have a single shot of them together.

 This year. Together again and smiling-it was fun.

Camp

Here are some cute pictures from our weekend at camp. The big kids in the picture are from my 7th grade class in Malibu.

Kabbalat Shabbat in the Yurt

Song Session

shabbat morning Torah art

Hannah's art

Natan is part of the group

Hannah gets suited up for the ropes course

Natan's ready to climb

Up goes brother

Sunday in the garden

Digging

Rainbow

On our way home, kids on bikes, we saw this...

Taken in front of our house

 This week we read this :
And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I give between Me and you, and every living being that is with you, to generations forever; I have set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. And it shall happen, when I place a cloud over the earth,  and the bow will be seen in the cloud, I will remember My covenant    between Me and you and every living being among all flesh, and the water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.” (Bereshit/Genesis 9:12-15)

 

Third times the charm

The last time I went to visit my parents I brought back some of the toys I played with when I was little. Some little people, books and of course Barbie. Lulu loves the Barbies. While playing with her I realized Barbie doesn't have the great of a wardrobe and what she does have is very 80's. So I decided to make some skirts with my new sewing machine. (B-day present).

I thought it would be easy.  I started by tracing a skirt from the collection. Not so good. Then I sacrificed a skirt, cut it in half, to make a pattern. Almost got it.

Model and Sacrificial Skirts

Getting better

Failure Skirts

These two were close the  blue flower one was way too big and there was no way to get the pink flower one over her hips.

Finally...

TaDa!

 

 

 

 

Even with a pink ric-rac belt that snaps.

I'm no Ralph Lauren but I read (while in the grocery store line) that high waist skirts are in for fall.

 Barbie looks happy.

Too Hot to Post

It's been so hot here the last few days. It was 100 in Malibu on Monday. It was too hot to play outside so I took the kids to the mall to keep cool and check out the Halloween costumes. Here are some pictures I took with my phone.

NatanLightyear

Can we get this?

Weird Rainbow at the end of the day (it wasn't raining)

Hot

It's so hot here today 83 and we live .8 miles from the beach, that's pretty close. Why am I surprised? I shouldn't be really its been cold all summer and now the last week of September feels like summer finally. What I'm surprised about...my tomatoes. After thinking myself a summer garden failure my tomato plant over the last three days of sun perked up and two tomatoes turned red and a few more are starting to turn. It's amazing. I would post pictures but my 6 and three year old ate them before I could get back outside with the camera.

HannahLulu Lulu

I have a daughter. She's 3 1/2. She told me she changed her name.
"To what?" I asked
"Hannahlulu Lulu" "Queen of the surfer girls"
"Like the song?"
"Yep"
"Okay but I like you name"
"But my name is so long!"
What do you mean?"

"Hannah Lulu Lastname Olivia that's so long"

Listen Here

Dare Devil

 My six year old loves to skate. He's been on wheels since he was a baby. But my little daredevil has had his fair share of falls, bruises and road-rash. But I'll let the picture speak for themselves.


Three Months Ago

One Month Ago

Three Days Ago

These great photos were taken by Larry Hirshowitz-Photographer Extrodanaire. He's the best and if you need great photos send me a comment and I will get you his info.

Sukkot

In honor of the holiday's historical significance, we are commanded to dwell in temporary shelters, as our ancestors did in the wilderness. The temporary shelter is referred to as a sukkah

The sukkah is great fun for the children. Building the sukkah each year satisfies the common childhood fantasy of building a fort, and dwelling in the sukkah satisfies a child's desire to camp out in the backyard. The commandment to "dwell" in a sukkah can be fulfilled by simply eating all of one's meals there; however, if the weather, climate, and one's health permit, one should spend as much time in the sukkah as possible, including sleeping in it.

A sukkah must have at least two and a half walls covered with a material that will not blow away in the wind. Why two and a half walls? Look at the letters in the word "sukkah"  one letter has four sides, one has three sides and one has two and a half sides.

The "walls" of the sukkah do not have to be solid; canvas covering tied or nailed down is acceptable and quite common in the United States. A sukkah may be any size, so long as it is large enough for you to fulfill the commandment of dwelling in it.

The roof of the sukkah must be made of material referred to as sekhakh (literally, covering). To fulfill the commandment, sekhakh must be something that grew from the ground and was cut off, such as tree branches, corn stalks, bamboo reeds, sticks, or two-by-fours. Sekhakh must be left loose, not tied together or tied down. Sekhakh must be placed sparsely enough that rain can get in, and preferably sparsely enough that the stars can be seen, but not so sparsely that more than ten inches is open at any point or that there is more light than shade. The sekhakh must be put on last.

Mary Mary Quite Contary

So we've gone "green" in so many ways, solar panels, rain buckets, grey water for the plants, composting, chickens, I decided we needed to start growing vegetables in our garden. We hardly used the back yard now that we have "fake" grass in the front. So after begging my husband for weeks he built me a raised bed. We planted squash, eggplant, tomato, basil and peppers. Then we planted a tub of beans, two containers of beets, two pots of cucumbers, a green zebra tomato and some radish on the patio. We watered and fed and water and waited...

Well, there are vegetables but not many  we've gotten three cucumbers, two tomatoes, and well you can see in the picture the pepper plant is teeny tiny about the height of my iphone.

Could be the weather its been cold this summer, or the compost, my husband got free compost from the city  we mixed it with good stuff but..

Well I decided to rip it out and start over. Not just the gardening bed but the whole back yard. We will convert the messy yard into a growing paradise. If all goes well we'll be feeding ourselves winter greens in no time.

Its not easy going green

I initially started to blog because my husband was on the fast track to make our household green. But it happened so fast I really never got a chance to blog about it. So here's a report card on the green doings in our household.
Solar Panels A- :Why the minus you ask? Because in Los Angeles you can't really be off the grid.
                             Now that we have our panels installed, inspected and approved, we are making
                             electricity all day long.  That's great, except we aren't usually home to run things
                             during the day. Needless to say the meter spins all day crediting the amount of
                             energy we put  back into the grid. But that's the problem.  Because we are putting
                             energy back into the grid we are connected. So, if there's a black out or a downed
                             line our electricity making solar panels automatically get switched off. They say its
                             so we don't electricute the power guys but really I think it is a control thing. I mean
                             if we are going green and getting off the grid I want to be able to survive the
                            "big one." I want to be the big queen of power, people coming to me and bartering
                             away their last be of money, food, amunitions, to charge their batteries with my
                             power.

Rain Barrel A: Pretty simple rain comes down fills up barrel when its not raining we use the water to
                         water the plants. I've seen some great set up with rain barrels connected to automatic
                         watering systems but we have a small yard, and fake grass so we don't need that much
                         water.

 

Fake Grass A+    Best thing we ever did to our front yard. Looks great, feels great, no allergies,

                             no sprinklers, dog poop picks right up and doesn't stick to it. 

Okay that's all for today. More on going green and growing green later...

Kol Nidre

Kol Nidre has an interesting history. It was composed during the sixth century when the Visagoth king of Spain ordered Jews to convert on pain of death. Kol Nidre was initially the anguished cry of those forced to commit apostasy. Thereafter, Spanish Jews sang it when they gathered in secret to celebrate Yom Kippur, as they did in the ninth century under Byzantine persecution, and again during the papal and Spanish inquisitions of thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.

We can hear anguish in the music. The melody begins on a falling note that stretches for two phrases, which is followed by a series of heroic ascents. After an interlude conducted in the lower register, the chant concludes with a defiant, triumphant flourish. The chant traces the journey of a soul in turmoil, searching for its voice, seeking solace, yearning for a sense of connection and communion. It’s the voice of Jewish history, tracing the arc of Jewish history. Even as it provides a melodic template for our souls’ journey during this season.  

The Kol Nidre chant has incredible transformative power. Franz Rosensweig was a young Jewish philosopher in Germany before WW I. In order to receive an appointment at one of Germany’s most prestigious Universities, Rosensweig decided he would convert to Christianity. Religion in general, and Judaism in particular, held little interest for him. It served only to impede his professional advancement.

As the story goes, he was out for a stroll on the eve of his conversion to Christianity when he passed by a synagogue. It was Erev Yom Kippur and as he passed by the synagogue, he could hear the chant of Kol Nidre. He was riveted to the spot, unable to move. By the time the cantor reached the prayer’s conclusion, Rosensweig knew in his heart that he could never leave Judaism.

Rabbi Nachman of Btratzlav said that when the soul hears its call and begins its journey back to God.
  Yet I sit here unable to move forward to attend synagogue with my husband and children. In the years since my ordination I have become more and more disconnected from the liturgy. My mind can not understand and my heart can not connect. 
    I am not without my share of sins, I have commmitted them all from aleph to tav and I do wish to be forgiven, I wish to pray and have my prayers heard I just can't do it in the community.  For now I will watch the sun set over the Marina listen to the traffic drive by. Maybe quiet is all that I need to reconnect my heart to my brain.
Gamar Hatimah Tovah.