Passing under the rod

Ezekiel 20:37 “I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.” One need not look very hard to find the beautiful, symbolic meanings woven by God into the fabric of the Fall festivals. The days are heavy-laden with the ripe fruit of needful repentance and […]

A minyan of years, a vanguard for us

We’ve made it ten whole years. It’s nothing but double digits from here on out! I can hardly believe it, not because I ever assumed we couldn’t make it, but because of how far we truly have come in so many ways that are immeasurable compared to the simple passing of years. Our ten years […]

Shir Yaffeh – Beautiful Music

God blessed our family abundantly with the opportunity to further our musical education this past summer. It’s always been a dream of mine to introduce the girls to the world of stringed instruments. However, the instruments themselves are exorbitantly expensive, not to mention the cost of private lessons. It didn’t seem like this dream would […]

Now faith is the substance

Laying our son to rest is undoubtedly the hardest thing I have had to face thus far in my life. We had two weeks for me to heal physically, and during this time we had plenty of quiet moments to contemplate what we wanted Joshua’s memorial to be before we buried him. I found myself […]

Extravagant Waste

Extravagant Waste Your life and death remind me of my favorite art Impasto paintings – acrylic slathered thick with a knife, not a brush Three-dimensional and boldly stated Weight and movement added with a heavy coat A waste of paint? No. A purposeful and defined expression Those thickened scrapes create an effect unmatched by the […]

Mourning a Life Not Lived, Celebrating a Life In Christ – A Guest Post

“The baby is dead.” The words permeated my heart like black ink poured into clear water. If ever there were two words that should never be joined together. But here they were side by side, suddenly and unexpectedly creating a harsh reality for me whether or not I would or could face it. The wound […]

“The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the LORD”

“I’m so sorry, but I cannot find a heartbeat.” No mother can ever prepare herself for those hideous words. The ultrasound tech gripped my hand as she gave me the news. I had gone in for a routine prenatal check-up. My pregnant belly has been big enough to require maternity clothes for several weeks now. […]

A Sabbath rest and a seventh baby

This school year has been going splendidly so far and we are 18 weeks in. Surprisingly, it’s the first year that I really tried hard to cut back on unnecessary curriculum and/or workbooks that I just knew would take up lots of time and provide little benefit. The children are still on target, which is […]

The unscrupulous milkman

Sometimes life throws us in strange situations that turn out to be the perfect opportunity for learning an important lesson. Homeschooling seems to afford me quite a bit of these timely occasions. Ketziah is almost one year old and we usually transition to whole milk right around this time. Finding a source of healthy, natural, […]

A short yet significant haggadah

This year’s Pesach seder was probably the most abbreviated one we’ve ever done. This was not without purpose. Many years past, it seems that the seders we’ve attended and hosted have been well over two hours long even with regular snacks and arranging the separate parts around the festive meal. This can be trying for […]