The home stretch

It always feels to me that the week leading into a break; fall, spring or summer, feels hectic and chaotic and stressful.! As swim season gears up and extra-curriculum activities get moving for all our school children (that count is now 3/5).  This week is no exception for us, after school meetings, swim practice and HOMECOMING at my school are all happening this week! Our house is only getting busier!!!

Today was day 2 of my daughter's swim meet, my son had Hebrew class at religious school and due to the rainy weather here, my daughters had limited play space at the swim meet. But, as a testament to what an amazing community our swim family is; my girls got in plenty of indoor and outdoor supervised play time because they are loved by sooo many people. I'm so grateful for all of those men and women. 

Here's the plan for this week: 

Sunday: We're headed to my uncle's house for dinner. We get to hear all about how my brother is doing and China! 

Monday we have a swim meeting and dinner so we will be eating out! (Whew, no dishes!)

Tuesday: We have a busy night tonite so we're grilling chicken breasts and hot dogs, making potatoe wedges and Country Salad. 

Wednesday: cheesy chicken and rice casserole and steamed broccoli 

Thursday: This is the homecoming game for my high school, which means we are tailgating with the faculty and their families! Favorite tailgating recipe is homemade corn dip. What's your favorite homemade tailgate recipe? Make sure to share it in the comments below! 

Friday we are having dinner out with my parents since they're going to be in town! First time in a while! And another night with no dishes!!! 

Saturday: (Happy fall break!!!) I'm hoping to start getting some yard work done today, which means I'm planning a make-up on the grilled Brauts and veggies. If you had yours, maybe tonite is the night to try grilled cheeseLTs? It's a grilled cheese with bacon and an extra piece of bread to dress the BLT part! A bit much, but so tasty! We had ours with homemade potato wedges. 

Here's the grocery list for your shopping! 

And best wishes to you all for a great fall break! May it be restful and useful and everything you and your family needed! 

Community Values

Today was a busy day. And it's not over yet!

It was the start of the fall swim season with a meet 30 minutes away. This pool is one I enjoy because they have a front "lawn" where my girls can run around while we wait for my oldest daughter's next event. It was rather chilly today, so we ended up moving inside the building. Still space to move, but not as much as we like to use. I got to have a great conversation with a mom friend who I have not been able to talk with in a while. Her kids swim on the same team as my daughter and I really appreciate her perspective on things. 

We came home for lunch, naps and getting ready to go to events #2 and #3. Event number 2 was the Homecoming Fall Festival and 5k at my high school. Each year this event gets better and better. More booths, more kids coming out, more teachers/administrators participating and (most importantly, I think) more alumni coming out! My swim team sold "This is Sparta" yard signs to raise money for going to state and lots of students and alumni friends came out and participated! (photos by the 3 year old!!)

Event number 3 was Annie running in the Zombie 5k. My cousin Greg is a runner and offered to help her train for the St. Jude Half Marathon in December. When she said she wanted to run in today's race, I knew I wouldn't be able to but she asked Greg and he seemed delighted to do it. They had a great time and she finished well! Beating her PR by 1mibute and smashing her goal time today by 5! 

A photo finish for sure!!

In the midst of all of this, we realized I forgot to buy Brauts for dinner tonite! So instead it was grilled cheeseBLTs and fries. Trust me when I say, they were amazing! 

It was great to sit around the table with my whole family and hear everyone talk about their experiences with everyone today. 

Tonite, I'm heading back to my school to serve my time as a dance chaperone. In hoping not to be there too late, but I'm excited for the dance to have returned! 

What's the point of all this? Community. 

We all want our kids to feel safe. We typically want them to ha e fun, make friends and enjoy life. But through it all we want them to grow in a community that is strong, diverse and encouraged and nurtured them to develop into their best self. Today's event have several different communities, but ones that I'm grateful to be a part of. Communities I'm proud to see my children be a part of. Today I watched my students play with my children and my students were all having a great time sharing great experiences. It may be one of the greatest gifts of being a teacher and a mom. I'm proud to support both of these communities. 

What are you proud of in your communities? How are you helping to nurture positive experiences for your kids? 

How to write a meal plan

Are you someone who says "I don't understand or I can't write a meal plan"? Do you wonder how others "stay organized"?

I find that this is something I am really good at. I can make lists, plan parties and organize spaces quickly, efficiently and (usually) get it done inexpensive. Here are a few of the tips I have for getting started on writing a meal plan of your own.

1. Make a list of things your family likes to eat.
If no one likes beef, don't include beef in your meal plan. You'll end up buying, cooking and storing leftovers of a food that will not be consumed and will go to waste. That's not beneficial.

2. Pull some recipes or look through some books or the internet for things you'd like to try.
Have you been pulling recipes from magazines and printing them off the internet because they sound good? Let's make a couple of them!

3. Get out your calendar!
Intuitively we know it is a bad idea to plan a 4 course meal on a night when all of your children have 15 things to do in 14 different places. But without our calendar, we might not know how our meals and our plans, line up.

4. Take it slow. 
Maybe just plan 2-3 meals and leave the other nights up to chance. See how it goes. I recommend that you write the meal on the calendar and put the title of the recipe next to it in your calendar. This helps you remember what comes each night and reminds you that you have an appointment with your kitchen. Going forward it may help that you have been recording this in case you are out running errands and need to get something for dinner that night or there is a change in the schedule.

5. Pick a day for grocery shopping.
The more consistent you get with meal planning, the easier it will get. The best way to be successful, is to have all of your needed ingredients when it's time to cook. It's frustrating if it is time to cook dinner and you need to run to the grocery for butter. In fact, it may make you not want to continue on the meal planning journey.

What other successes or suggestions do you have?

What other "How-To's" would be helpful to you?

Remember the duck? Be the duck

I was supposed to have a play date with a friend this afternoon. She has a 2 year old and a 3 week old baby. Life feels very tough for her. 

I was bringing my son, my girls and the baby. 4 kids in tow. We were 10 minutes late, but we were there. 

Approximately 45 minutes after our planned meeting I got a text that she had just gotten to her 2 year old daughter's school. Almost 20 minutes away, easily. 

We decided to try again for our play date. 

Tonite, I had a short, quick errand to run and I offered to bring her coffee. No answer. I went home instead. 

About an hour later I received this message:

"So I'm not good at checking my phone and I just saw this. Currently we have s clean house, 2 clean kids, a full dog, 1 nursing baby, and 1 toddler wanting milk but will have to wait bc daddy's working. Thank you for the offer! Seriously, you're my hero for doing this w 5. You always seem organized and together. I don't even feel like I can keep my life together when it's just me!"

And this was my reply:

With this message:

"That's my bedroom. I just discovered lice in Dillys hair. Again. After she cut 3 more chunks out. Again. And she's wearing a pull-up because I'd rather spend $5/mo than risk getting peed on even 1 more time. I have a minimum of 5 loads of laundry to do and at least a load of dishes. I need to sweep and swifter all over my house. I don't do this any better than anyone else. But I try to recognize that teaching my kids to roll with life will be better than freaking out over laundry and dishes. You're doing great and I'm excited for you that baby is here and you're figuring out your new normal. It's a challenge for us all! Keep pushing."

Friends, I promise, it's tough. But I also promise our kids are growing up right in front of our faces and they're going to leave us one day. If you need help planning something, ask, or check my blog to see if I have a tutorial. If I don't and you want my help, ask. If I do, use it!!

Help each other. Offer support. Fold a friend's laundry. Open a door. 

Help. Each. Other! 

Organizing ALL THE THINGS

A lot of people ask me "How do you do it all?" And I frequently answer, "I'm a walking Nike commercial... I just do it!" But, that is a terrible explanation. So, I'd like to give you one explanation about how I organize some of the things.

This year, I have grades, classroom things, Mock Trial, Youth-in-Government, Softball and Swim Team to stay caught up on. For some this would seem like a truly daunting task and their desk might forever look like a tornado hit it...

Not to say that this doesn't get overwhelming sometimes. It does. Some days I get frustrated and wonder why I feel like I'm doing more than everyone else.

But, most days, it's not bad, because it's organized and ready to go in a way that is accessible, fluid and easy.

My number one suggestion is for separating each major "thing" into it's own notebook. This way all the papers and spreadsheets and what-nots are in one location, not to be shared with anything else. Next is to keep the labeling clean and bright. This way it pops out and is easy to find. I like the clear front pocket for receipts for the students for those activities so that if I need to find it quickly, I can.

most of the notebooks of the things

I keep my checklist as the first page when I open the notebook and try to keep as much as possible in the rings and not in the pockets so that things don't get lost. I have a similar system at home for keeping things tidy there, as well. Hopefully this helps you in getting some things more organized in your classroom, home or office.

I am Jewish

Growing up, I wore my religion on my sleeve. I loved being different. I loved being asked questions about my religion and answering questions.

In high school, that changed. I was called names and made to feel that my differences were bad. I was ridiculed and bullied and administration couldn't stop it. Ultimately, I left my school for a semester to allow things to calm down. 

In college I went to a Jesuit college. The Brothers encouraged my attendance and participation and nurtured my curiosity in other faiths. I was accepted. When I moved to a bigger university setting, I still felt accepted. 

After college I worked for faith based and non-faith based companies. Now I work for a public school. We have a very diverse student population, but there is a strong division between church and state. I don't overly broadcast my Judaism, but I don't try to hide it. There are other teachers who are Jewish and they make sure that we are treated fairly for religious holidays and the like.

But we are in the midst of the Days of Awe, the High Holiday Days, and my Judaism feels more special. More like a gift.

Last week, we celebrated and commemorated Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. On this day, Jews are called upon to recognize a lot about themselves; their brokenness, their position in this life, wrongs that they may have committed, and really take note of the person they are becoming.

Generally, in our faith, bringing someone to services is considered a mitzvah, a good deed. It is meant to be an invitation to share in our celebrations, not to be proselytizing, or trying to get someone to change religions. We don't usually bring "outsiders" to the High Holiday services. But, this year was different.

I have not attended or participated in High Holiday services since my mother, of blessed memory, passed away in 2011. I have been harboring some difficult feelings that I was not all-together ready to face. Frankly, I was pissed off at G-d, and frustrated with my "beautiful religion" as my friends would say and I was sick of hearing things like, "She's in a better place", or "it was her time" or, my least favorite and hardest to swallow, "It was G-d's will". Like hell it was.

So, this year, I asked my friend to come with me. She is someone I have a lot of respect for. She'll shoot you straight, tell you how she's feeling and she says no. That last one is one I'm hoping to learn from her. She will say no when she can't, won't or doesn't want to. I don't know how to do that well yet.

The service this year featured a sermon by our newest Rabbi. She shared, beautifully, how important it is to be vulnerable. To recognize our brokenness, our lack of always knowing and that sometimes it's totally fine to lay it all out there. Rabbi Wohlner is a little quirky in some really great ways. She has an insane amount of confidence, a beautiful voice for cannon and song and a great wit. But she's fiercely intelligent and very well positioned in the South, though I don't think she is a native.

this spoke to me

Her sermon, like most sermons I've heard lately it seems, spoke directly into my heart and soul. It sounded something like this... "Rachel, it's totally cool that you're livid at G-d. You have that right. It's awesome that you came to services and probably wise that you brought a friend to share the awesome parts and be there if the bad stuff gets too bad. Some days we all have great days, but it's those bad days that we push through and hold closer to our faith, whatever it is, that really define who we are. Can you recognize the bad day in someone else? Can you be responsive to that in a supportive and kind way? Are you ok with the idea that we are not all perfect?"

Members 10 years or less

So, I've decided that this is where I'll share my Judaism. There's lots of questions out there....so shoot. Ask me. I'll share my thoughts on our holidays, how my family is participating or give my personal commentary on my synagogue's sermon or activities that week and you can ask me anything you want to know. And if I don't know the answer, maybe I can get Rabbi Wohlner do guest blog at some point. She may be cool like that...

I'm not perfect

I'm a mom. I have 5 kids, I love them fiercely and try so hard to do the things that I should for them. I posted about my youngest daughter yesterday. She is adorable and wonderful and I said that she was 3 months old yesterday. She's not. She's 4 months old.

An entire extra month of her life went by and I somehow, wasn't paying attention and I missed it.

A friend pointed it out when I shared her picture on facebook. I felt terrrible.

I'm her mother, surely I know how old my daughter is. Right?

Instead, I checked the calendar, fixed the blog post and the facebook post and laughed it off... and then the mom-guilt set in.

I felt like crap that I missed an entire month.

I shared on instagram a while back about her first time on swings. And then I wondered if it was really her first time on a swing. Did she go with her nanny while I was at work? Is this a joy she's already had that I missed?

Life is tough having kids. Doesn't matter if you have 1 or 5 or 11. We have created a society that makes it necessary for us to do all the things and with pinterest and instagram and everything else, there's this notion that not only are we capable of doing ALL THE THINGS, but that they are adorable, monogrammed and photograph worthy.

Let's be real, they're not.

This is my plan going forward, I am going to make an effort to do the best I can in that moment. And if it's not perfect, I'm letting myself off the hook. It's ok to not be perfect. Then, I'm going to start trying to spread some love and motivate a few others out there.

Who's with me? Can you let yourself off the hook?