Puppy

Today we went on our second puppy browsing expedition... and (surprising ourselves!) came home with a puppy. I mean, not totally surprising ourselves. We did decide - a year ago - to get a puppy, and we knew it likely we would be getting one soon, but we didn't really think we'd actually be bringing one HOME today! But we did. We went to a rescue organization that had 60 puppies (plus probably 120+ adult dogs). It was overwhelming with so many and I could hardly separate one puppy out from the next. D. described what we were looking for and the lady knew exactly which one was the right one for us. As soon as D. saw him, that was it and he was ours. He's 10 weeks old, probably 25 pounds (for now... note those BIG paws!), and is an English Shepherd mix. Very calm and sweet. And his name? Basil Rathbone.

And on top of that, we also acquired two rabbits in the last week! One from the Humane Society, a white female rabbit we have named Amelia Earhart (EER-hart... ha ha ha), and another from an individual, a white rex with black splotches that we have named Horatio. Horatio and Amelia are living in a condo next to the chickens. We also built them a little run outside the chicken run where the kids can play with them, and the rabbits can also hang out with the chickens in their run. We'll use their waste for garden compost, and could also use it to feed/fertilize a future tilapia pond. Pictures of them to follow soon, IYH! What a week...

Down Two Teeth!

Raizel has beaten Eli to the punch and lost two teeth! The top two are wiggily too, so I'm sure she'll be down four any day now IYH. Eli has some wiggling around too. Looks like with might have a toothless club around here!

The Menu

Another week has evaporated!

For dinner:

challah
caesar salad
rosemary garlic beef roast
steamed broccoli
roasted asparagus
roasted potatoes
roasted mushrooms
miniature chocolate cakes

And for lunch:

challah
caesar salad
oregano chicken
white bean salad
orange onion spinach salad
tomato avocado salad
mushroom tart
and from our guests... a chocolatey conglomeration

Simple food to cook this week!

Good shabbos, all!

The Menu

We're baaaaaaack, after two weeks away and a few days of post-pesach recovery. I have no idea what we ate for pesach. Wait, yes I do. I'll try to recreate it even though most of the post-pesach meals were completely improvised. :) We were definitely in vacation mode!

For dinner:

challah (YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!)
roasted chicken with potatoes and carrots
roasted bok choi
roasted sweet potatoes
roasted balsamic onions
steamed (for a change) corn
strawberries and mixed fruit sorbet

For lunch:

beef barley not-cholent with homemade kishke
mint-stuffed eggs
pesto orzo broccoli salad
potato torta (potatoes, sausage, onions)
marinated pan-fried zucchini
carrot salad
peanut butter cup bars

Good shabbos!

Paw Paws

Our own paw paws are leafing out in the front yard. We can't wait to try them, IYH!

The Rest of the News

Oh, my. A tricky week. We did only a half-week of learning since I'm just a bit distracted with pesach preparation/packing, but that was fine. Amirah had a siyum for finishing parshas vayeira. She read every word! Usually students skip chunks of it, but it was all going so well and her vocabulary and grammar knowledge was deepening so nicely I just let it continue. It means we spent a lot more time on this parsha than most do, but I love alpidarko! It was working for her, so why mess with it? :)

Then we learned about three car break-ins in two days on our block. Bleah. Nothing much of value taken, it seems. Just property damage. D. thinks we should just leave our cars unlocked so it's easier for them to see what's inside! It's not like a 2003 Odyssey minivan is on their most-wanted-vehicle list. Humph.

Then, worst of all, our dear kitty, Lucy, got hit by a car and died very early this morning. We barely had her three months. Amirah is very, very sad, but handling it pretty well. Her first desire was to get her a blanket to cover her up. Tomorrow we'll have a kitty funeral and bury her in the side of the yard where she liked to hang out. Poor kitty. We will really miss her sweet little face. So many lessons come from these things - lessons about street safety to reinforce, lessons about human lives versus animal lives, lessons about learning to grieve so that when bigger grief comes into our lives we have a sense of how to handle it, and knowing that all that Hashem brings to us is for the good.