I told you I'll be back after the holidays

Hello, I'm back. Trying to find my way back to the ever growing blogosphere with my tiny blog about my tiny life. I hope my 3 readers are happy to read me.
As you can see I changed the site quite a bit. It took a while to come up with a new title but "Microscopes and diapers" is not so relevant any more. My youngest son will soon be potty trained although it will cost me a mini nervous breakdown with him marking his territory all over the house. I'm also taking a break from microscopes and going to rethink my career paths and opportunities. But I always hope and wish for rain living in this arid corner of the world. The last  summer was one of the hottest ever measured in the country and I felt like a wilting pot. I am a wintry person who likes clouds, wind, rain and snow. I adore scenery of mountains and forests. I hate the sea and detest bathing suits. So it is obvious I was born in the wrong place (Alaska would suit me so much more) but I'm trying to do the best with I have. Usually it means sleeping with the air-con on.
So, we're in the beginning of October the temp is supposed to drop and I had quit a job that made me very unhappy. The future stretches before me to fill it with words. 
Word telling stories from life, about books that I read, about blogs that I visit, about music and nature and whatever comes to my mind. Yes, lots of blah, blah and maybe an occasional gluten free recipe. The weather report talks about chances of local rain on Friday. I really hope it will rain.

Sunset in Akziv beach at the last week of August

I say goodbye

This will be my last post in this format. I need to think thoroughly what i want to focus my writing upon and to decide on some sort of message to deliver. the recent format of just telling small stories about my life seems very boring, at least in the way i currently write it. i know that i am my worst critic but if i don't like something that i do, i have to stop doing it. I'll try to figure out what i do want to write about and how. this is time consuming and requires a creative energy that for now i need to invest in my work and family. I'm not happy with the design of my blog as well so i will play with it for a while to see what suits me best.
so thanks my devoted readers and supporting followers. i hope to come back, maybe somewhere in October after the Jewish holidays.
Farewell and Bye-Bye

Back to blogging: My little organic garden

suprisingly i got busy. once i got back home from the course in Vienna, suddenly work begun piling up and there i was once again working, being a mom and going to sleep at 22:00 every night. so not much time was left for blogging. this left all my thousands of fans in tears, but now I'm back with this little post. i have much to say about the Jewish holiday of Passover (Pesach) and the Seder night that is a fertile ground for family drama or comedy (depends on your view of life). But since i have so much to say its totally incoherent, so i gave it up for now.
i want to write about my little project. My vegetable garden. this was part of our holiday activities since during the Pesach holidays we don't get out of the house. during this holiday every piece of national park, sea side or shopping mall in Israel is packed with families on vacation. since standing in lines and sitting in traffic jams with 3 impatient kids is not my cup of tea, Pesach is time for the indoors or rather for the backyard. this holiday we recruited the kids to work in the backyard and recover the lawn from the winter damages. The kids helped us to uproot weeds, scatter compost and plant  flowers beds. we have a very small backyard but we try to keep it nurtured. in our attempt to turn our home to an autarkic farm in the future we grow vines, olives and pomegranates. we try to make it our haven with lots of hammocks and rocking chairs and little places to hide and be surrounded by vegetation.

our house has also a huge porch that is connected to our bedroom. i know, it sounds great, and we had great plans for the place but somehow they always dissolved to neglect. the only thing that survived a year of not opening the door to the porch were our pear trees.

but i decided that this holiday we'll turn this unused plot to my own organic (no pesticides or herbicides) vegetable garden. working with mud and soil is great fun, (my two year old adores it) and i found that physical work in uprooting weeds and grooming trees is more relaxing then Yoga. the establishing of the "bedroom porch organic vegetable garden" was lots of fun to kids as well, we planted in 4 planters tomatoes, pumpkin, coriander, and eggplant.

 i think it's good to show the kids that food grows and comes from soil and mud and not from sterile supermarkets. the inspiration to my little project came from a book i recommend: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Now I'll need to be dedicated and hope that in a few months I'll eat my own grown tomatoes in the sandwich I'm taking to work. 

A weekend of food and comfort:

It seems that the times we're living in are more hectic than ever. Israel is not an easy place to live but the last violence wave peaking in a murder of a 7 year old child by pedophiles seem to drown us all in fear and anxiety. So in times like these I need to activate the repression and denial mechanisms: reading lots of books avoid the papers and news and getting regular SMS from my kids when they leave the house for their different activities.
This weekend was one of rest and a little family harmony accompanied by huge amounts of food we cooked and baked. On Friday ,since my youngest went to his nursery (its open every other week), I took a couple of hours to myself, and went gathering edible herbs with my best friend Sarah, her youngest son and a few other food bloggers with passion. The sunny weather suited us very much as we tramped along a hillside in the Judean hills near Beit-Shemesh. This area of Israel is one of my favorite in the world, and I never get tired to hiking and touring in there in all seasons but especially in winter when the hills become lush green and flowers bloom all over. There you can believe the statements that we live in a beautiful country. It's also very convenient for me since I reside in a city very close to this area, and from my backyard I can see the hills and Judean Mountains. So on Friday I've learned that many plants that we tend to overlook and don't give a second thought to (only maybe as harassing weeds) can be used as food or medicine, and I felt a bit sad that all that knowledge is now almost completely lost and we can benefit from so much of it. For a most informative post about the subject check my friend Sarah's blog at: www.sarahmelamed.com


I had fun hiking in the sun enjoying the scene and having a most existential conversation with Sarah's son on who's a cooler superhero: Superman, Batman or Spider-man. No conclusions there.

While I was trying to figure out what "Olesh" is in English (Chicory), my husband took advantage of the fact that we were all out of the house and went to one his famous cooking frenzy. Although he's not even remotely near to a North-African descent (all his grandparents came from Poland) or do I, he cooked for us his favourites: Hraime (spicy fish in tomato sauce), Mafrum (eggplant or potato stuffed with minced meat) and Couscous with vegetable soup. For my middle daughter who's extremely picky about food, he stir-fried rice noodles with chicken and tofu. Needless to say that she took out all the tofu cubes one by one from her portion. Since we had such huge amounts of food we invited for our Shabbat meal our friend Y. Y is a very good friend of ours. My husband saw him first, they're friends since high-school but once I met him (17 years ago!) we became good friend as well. People have mistaken us for brother and sister, (when introduced to my real brother, most people are quite surprised because we have no physical resemblance to each other). So Y was pleased to come over for some home cooked meal. He's a 40 years old bachelor and every time he spends with us and our noisy kids I think he's very grateful that he's still on his own… he always seems surprised from how much mayhem 3 kids under 12 can create.

On Shabbat morning the Hazan family came to drink some coffee in our garden since it was very pleasant and sunny. The Hazans are our friends since our oldest daughter went to kindergarten with their oldest daughter. The kids took advantage of the sun and my youngest practised his soccer skills while his older sisters wanted to sit with the grown-ups and listen to some gossip.

Our Shabbat lunch was spent with my parents. My mum cooked Cholent, out of all things. The temp' outside was hitting 20 centigrade. We should have had salads and cold cuts, but according to those who eat Cholent (not me, I just have a brown egg) it was very tasty.

We went home to the desert I baked for Sabbath: chocolate cloud cake, my eldest favourite cake, and we could declare ourselves completely stuffed.

I really enjoyed this weekend full of friends and family and great, great food cooked with love. Sometimes that is all you need to feel sane and safe in this not such a wonderful world.

Having fun in the winter sun