Hmmm...Just a mix up?....

At the start of the year we received some paperwork from our eldest daughters school, she's 12 and in grade 8 this year. The paperwork was just things they wanted us to confirm the details were still current and correct such as our address, phone, allergies, doctor etc. I was a little dismayed whilst reading this paperwork to come to the section of 'religion' and find that it no longer stated my daughters religion to be Jewish but now stated 'Islam'. Some people would not find this a problem and would simply change it back to 'Jewish', which is exactly what I did, but, I must admit, I was a little upset. No other details had been 'accidentally changed' but what could I do? It was obviously a mistake, there was no point contacting the school as that would be a complete over reaction. It did cross my mind though, that the school has a fairly new principle who has arrived from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She is an Australian, but has spent the past few years teaching and living in Dubai - but hey, a little far fetched to think that there is some kind of connection right?? I suppose I should also mention that where we live here in Australia, it is an area which does not have a very big Muslim population, and basically you could count them on one hand, unlike other areas which have been pretty much taken over by Muslims like Lakemba in Sydney.
Last week my daughter came home from school and told me that the school assembly would not be on Wednesday this week but Thursday to celebrate 'International Women's Day'. So, I thought "Well, that sounds good...". She then proceeded to tell me the principle has arranged a special guest speaker to come and talk to the whole school (it's a girls school)....and that special guest speaker is 'Muslim of the Year' from 2009. I don't want to sound racist, but I'm not really excited about the whole thing. Surely they could have found someone a little more inspirational than someone who is a stand out in the community for organising the 'shinpads and hijabs' program? I'm starting to see a pattern from this principle that I'm not really liking.

.... Just another day ....

No I have NOT fallen off of the face of the earth!!

No, I haven't re-given up blogging for the 10 billionth time, I've just been a bit to busy to have the time to write another post, and to be completely honest, I just haven't had much to actually write about. Let's face it, my days are not really full of 'adventure', they mainly consist of organizing the older girls in the morning for school, , delivering our oldest to the bus as she attends a private school about 40 minutes drive away, delivering the other two to their school getting the two babies sorted ready for a day of playing and fun and then its housework for me...

Another factor of lack of blog writing is the fact I'm using my phone to surf the web at the moment as the computer in the lounge is being used most of the time and the other computer is downstairs where there is no air conditioning and it is just way to hot down there.

On a positive note, I have now reached the 11th week of my pregnancy and I'm feeling a lot better than I was a couple of weeks ago. The nausea has settled right down now and I'm feeling a little less tired than before. I'm now able to make it through the day without a nap, although with the two little ones sleeping at different times during the day the time left for me to squeeze in a nap is very limited!

Back To Daily A Routine....At Last!

The past 2 weeks have been busy....but don't ask me what I have been doing as I really couldn't tell you any specific 'events', I think it is just having all the children at home over the past 6 or 7 weeks for the summer school break makes for a busy household.

I did manage however to get myself off to the Doctors to confirm my pregnancy and get the appropriate forms for the appropriate tests to be done, which meant a few days after that I had blood tests and a 'dating' ultrasound to find out when exactly this baby is due. As it turns out the baby is due on the 6th of September - ages away, I know! After seeing the flickering of our tiny babys heart on the ultrasound makes it all a bit more real now. I felt very excited, but also relief to see that everything was on track, so far. Next is to get over all the pregnancy nausea I have had this time around. Of my 5 previous pregnancies, I have never really suffered from morning sickness. I wouldn't say I have really been 'sick' so to speak this time either, just the yukky feeling of feeling unwell at the most inconvenient times, particularly at meal times. I am sure this will all pass soon enough though.

On another note, the girls all go back to school next week which they are all very excited about. I must admit, I am just a bit excited about it too. It will be nice to be back into the day routine that school time brings. It will also be nice to have a little bit of peace and quiet around the house during the day (not forgetting the 2 littlies will be here) - it does become very noisy with 3 older girls constantly chatting all day long. So as we all get ready for the return of school, holidays for the girls draw to a finish - they have been fun, but very long, bring on school days!!

..... Just another day ....

School Holidays, Beach Trips and Shabbat

School holidays can be so tiring. It's not that we are doing a whole lot, but just having everyone at home at once in a small house it gets crowded and noisy really quickly. By the time 3pm comes around, I need to have an afternoon sleep on the couch! I suppose that has a lot to do with my pregnancy to. I'm looking forward to Monday, I have an appointment for my first ultrasound to see how bub is going and to get a 'due date'. I had a Doctors appointment on Wednesday, he said I'm 9 weeks and due on the 8/8/12, but I'm not sure I'm that far along, I think I may be around 7 weeks.

The past few days the 5 girls and I have just been going out and doing some grocery shopping. Yesterday it was hot (like everyday here!) so we went for a swim in our pool in the morning. The water was cool, but very refreshing. We are supposed to be having a bit of a heatwave here over the next few days so I suppose swimming will be on the cards once again. The funny thing is, we swim a lot in our pool, but we live right on the beach front and although the older girls go down to the beach sometimes, I hardly ever do which means the babies miss out. Yesterday afternoon I decided to take all the girls just down the front to the beach. The 'getting ready' stage took way to long, organising drinks for everyone, getting the babies into their sun safe suits and getting their sunscreen on, getting the older girls ready - it ended up taking about 1/2 an hour. Anyhow, we eventually headed down to the beach and once we got there Topaz cried the whole time and Sapphire didn't want to leave the blanket we were sitting on as she didn't like the sand!! Not a very successful trip. I suppose I couldn't expect to much they are only little and don't go to the beach very often.

Today, I have a lot of cooking planned for Shabbat tonight. One of the things I'm making is one of my favorite meals, Pumpkin Broccoli and Chicken Hot Pot. I'm looking forward to a nice peaceful and relaxing Shabbos with my family. Shabbat Shalom!


.... Just another day ....

To Step In... or Not?

Every day it amazes me just how fast children grow. I find myself looking at my 3 'older' girls thinking  how it seems like only yesterday that they were tiny, brand new babies, and now, here they are in front of me 8, 10 and almost 12 years old. In that sense, the past 10 years has gone so fast.

Since we live in a fairly quiet and safe area we allow the girls to go out by themselves on their scooters. It teaches them some responsibility.  We have very strict rules that they must follow such as being home on time, staying together at all times, carrying a mobile phone at all times and behaving themselves whilst in public etc.

A couple of days ago, the girls were out on their scooters just down the road on the beach front esplanade. They were just playing and having fun when they saw a little boy aged about 2 or 3 years old running away from his mother, basically just being naughty. They didn't take much notice and continued playing until a few minutes later the same little boy was about to head out onto the road. My eldest daughter Jade stopped him while Amber and Ruby questioned where his mother was. The mother came stomping over and said 'I'm here!' and was really angry and snatched the boy away. The problem was, the girls had just stopped the boy from running onto the road where he could have been hit by a car (it's tourist season here and there's lots of cars around) and instead of showing some appreciation towards the girls for their fast actions, she took her anger that she had for her son running off on her out on the girls! She not only failed to be thankful but was straight up rude.

It seems all to often some people are quick to say there is something wrong with our society - that people just don't care about each other and it's no wonder when some people like this lady react as they do. I think it is fair to say the girls did the right thing and had noone taken action and her child been hit by a car she'd be complaining that noone had stopped him and society doesn't care about each other!


.... Just another day ....

Delicious Leek Fritters

The thing I love about cooking is trying out new recipes. When I was flicking through my recipe book and saw these Leek Fritters I just had to give them a try out. They are really simple to make and even the kids loved them - which is always a bonus!


These crispy fried morsels feature prominently in the Sephardi kitchen. Legend has it that these were what the fleeing Israelites were missing and moaning for when they were in the desert. 

They are best served at room temperature with a good squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkling of salt.



Ingredients:

4 large leeks thickly sliced
1/2 - 3/4 cup coarse matzo meal
2 eggs lightly beaten
large pinch of dried basil
pinch nutmeg
oil for frying
salt & pepper to season
lemon wedges to serve

Method:

1. Cook leeks in salted boiling water for 5 minutes or until tender and bright green, drain and leave to cool.

 2. Chop leek roughly, put in bowl and combne with matzo meal, eggs, basil, nutmeg and seasoning.

3. Shallow fry, carefully adding spoonfuls of mixture to frying pan of hot oil, Cook until golden brown on both sides, drain on kitchen paper.

4. Serve with lemon wedges.









.... Just another day ....

Pig’s Head Hung In Tree At Jewish Appartments In Sydney

This just disgusts me, and the response from the local police even more so. It hasn't made it as 'important' news in any of the major daily Sydney newspapers such as Sydney Morning Herald or The Daily Telegraph - but 'more important news' such as Aussie ex-model Elle McPhearson holidaying in Byron Bay does? Hmmm...priorities? Thankfully J-Wire is on the ball and reported the following article:

A pig’s head, a traditional Eastern European sign of anti-Semitism, has been found in a tree outside a small exclusive block of flats in the Sydney suburb of Bellevue Hill.

Of the five residents in the block, two are Jewish and a third Jewish-born. One of the owners spotted the head tied to the branch of the tree as she exited the block on the weekend.

Calls to the police and the State Emergency Services failed to get a response with replies stating that it was not in their domain.

The resident, who declined to be named, told J-Wire: “I also complained to Woollahara Council. In the meantime, a friend cut it down and the Council arrived, even though it was Crhistmas Day, to take it away”.

A spokesperson for the Community Security Group told J-Wire: “It was no doubt a lack of education which prompted Rose Bay Police Station’s response and we will act on this. This is not first time a pig’s head has been placed outside buildings with Jewish connections. Fortunately, it is a very rare occurrence.”

The resident told J-Wire she was unaware of any possible reason the head was placed in the tree.

Peter Wertheim, executive director of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told J-Wire: “Despite the general goodwill that prevails at this time of the year, Christmas and Easter are also occasions when a handful of nutters come out of the woodwork to give vent to their prejudices. They are invariably too cowardly to openly claim responsibility for this sort of a stunt. The community can have every confidence that the CSG is handling the matter appropriately.”

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Our Own Little Hanukkah Miracle

I've been contemplating whether or not to share the news we received on the first day of Hanukkah. Most people would wait until a bit further down the track, but I figure, why not share the good news - it's kind of our own little Hanukkah miracle! Such a blessing should be shared! Mr Bagel and I discovered that we are expecting our 6th baby. It's early days yet, I'm around 5-6 weeks and due toward the end of August 2012. I'm hoping everything will be ok and we'll have a nice healthy bub.

We have chosen to tell the girls, they were all a bit stunned as we already have two babies under 2 years in the house at the moment. By the time this one arrives Sapphire will be almost 2.5 years and Topaz 16 months. As I said, it's exciting news for us and as I haven't shared the news with anyone outside of our immediate family, my blogging friends are first to know! I have decided I will wait a few more weeks until after I have had my first ultrasound and when I'm out of the 'danger period' - when I'm about 12 weeks before I tell my 'local' friends.

I wanted this Hanukkah to be special and being able to spend it with my husband and our 5 girls makes it very special of course, but this new makes it even more special. I wonder if this will be our 6th girl?!?


.... Just another day ....

A Simple and Delicious Latke Recipe

Ok, so I'm sure there are 10 billion Latke recipes around, but I wanted to share the recipe I use anyway! This recipe obviously doesn't make a lot of Latkes, but can be doubled, tripled or whatever you like. I ended up doing 10 times the amounts below which was heaps for two days for my family of 7.


Ingredients:

2 potatoes
1 onion
1 egg
2 tablespoons matzo meal
oil for frying
salt & pepper to taste


Method:

1. Peel potatoes and grate along with the onion into a bowl (a food processor is a life saver for larger amounts!).

2. Place in a colander and press down to drain excess liquid and return to bowl.

3. Mix in lightly beaten egg and matzo meal. Season well.

4. Add tablespoon sized dollops of the mix to a frying pan of hot oil and flatten slightly with an egg flip. Cook until golden on both sides, drain on a paper towel lined plate to soak up excess oil and serve hot with apple sauce or sour cream.

5. Enjoy....but not too many!!


.... Just another day ....

'The Promise' an accurate representation?

Just over a month ago, my husband Mr Bagel and I were very excited to see advertised on the television channel 'SBS' the drama/mini-series, 'The Promise'. For anyone who is not familiar with the show, its about a young British girl who travels to Israel, retracing the steps of her grandfather - a British soldier stationed there in the 1940s.We really don't get many Jewish/Israel related television shows or movies on the television here in Australia. It ran over four Sunday nights at 8.30pm and what started out as excitment on our behalf soon turned to bitter disappointment that grew with each painful episode. This British production was horribly inaccurate and anti-semetic. Mr Bagel and I were horrified we had allowed our 11 year old daughter to be exposed to such rubbish. Mr Bagel had a few of his own thoughts to share - I suppose, a small review of sorts that he originally wrote on another site, which I wanted to share.

Finished watching the fourth part of this English produced 'drama' shown in Australia, it was horribly inaccurate, biased and appallingly acted.
What looked promising in the first episode became a tiresome justification for Arab terrorism, giving the mythologised Nakba narrative some pseudo historical foundation.
Simply stated the British soldiers were swell guys, the Arabs peace loving beatniks and the Jews, rich, uncaring and murderous. Just what the British viewing public needed to reaffirm their swelling antisemitic stereotypes of Israelis.

For a little more background try:

Channel 4: Breaking The Promise | HonestReporting

honestreporting.com

Channel 4?s four part drama “The Promise,” has caused a great deal of concern and prompted a number of complaints to HR UK.

I would love to here the thoughts on this show from others who have seen it also.

.... Just another day ....

Hanukkah Preparations - Are you ready?

It's the 20th December today, and tonight is the first night of Hanukkah! I'm not sure who is more excited, the girls or I? Without putting to much focus on presents, I must say, I am looking forward to seeing them open their presents over the next 8 nights. As I said, it is not just about presents though, I also am looking forward to lighting the menorah tonight, watching the girls play dreidel and teaching the girls the history behind Hanukkah.

I have been making plans since mid year for Hanukkah and even though last Hanukkah was a good one, I wanted to make this one even better! The past few weeks have really dragged on awaiting the 20th December to finally arrive. Presents have been organised for many weeks, and now, it is a bit hard to believe Hanukkah is almost here!

This morning I put my final preparations in place and went grocery shopping with all 5 of the girls - who, thankfully, were well behaved while we were out (that always makes the trip easier!). Two hours and two trolley loads later, I have finished my grocery shopping also. I have many different recipes lined up for the next 8 days, so look out Kosher Cooking Carnival, I will be submitting a few recipes for the next carnival!! Hmmmm....I wonder if the 8kgs of potatos I brought will be enough for Latkes this year??

This video is one of my favorite for Hanukkah, I'm sure you have all seen it before, but I thought I would share it anyhow :)

Chag Sameach!! Happy Hanukkah to all!!

..... Just another day ....

Gingerbread Dreidels

The first thing Ruby (our 8 year old daughter) asked me this morning when I woke up was, "How many more days to Hanukkah?". With only 2 days until the first night of Hanukkah, I am feeling really good to be so organised this year! The past few weeks have been a bit of a blur with getting presents for all the girls, deciding on food, Hanukkah related learning and activities for the girls. Thanks to the lovely Batya over at me-ander, we now have another activity for the girls.... "pin the candle on the chanukiya". I know the girls will have so much fun with not just playing this game, but also with the 'making' side of it all too. My 3 older girls love anything to do with craft and cooking. Which brings me to the whole point of this post! A few days ago, the girls and I made gingerbread dreidels, they hardly lasted long enough to be iced even after making a double batch! So obviously they were delicious! Here is the recipe for anyone wanting to give them a go.

Ingredients:

• 125g pareve margarine or butter, at room temperature
• 100g (1/2 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
• 125ml (1/2 cup) molasses
• 1 egg, separated
• 375g (2 1/2 cups) plain flour
• 1 tbs ground ginger
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 150g (1 cup) pure icing sugar, sifted
• 8-10 drops blue liquid food colouring

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Use an electric beater to beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy. Add the molasses and egg yolk and beat until combined. Stir in the flour, ginger, mixed spice and baking soda. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Press dough into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.
3. Meanwhile, place egg white in a clean, dry bowl. Use an electric beater to beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add icing sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Divide icing between 2 bowls - one for white icing, one for blue (or whatever colours you choose). Cover 1 bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge. Add blue colouring to 1 bowl and stir until combined. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge.
4. Place the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll out until about 4mm thick. Use a dreidel cutter (or cutter of your choice) to cut out shapes. Place on trays about 3cm apart. Repeat with any excess dough.
5. Bake in oven for 10 minutes or until brown. Remove from oven. Transfer to a rack to cool.
6. Place prepared icings in small plastic bags. Cut a small hole in a corner of each bag. Pipe icing over gingerbread to decorate as you choose.

{before icing}

Makes about 25 (depending on cutter size used)
Enjoy!

Just another day ....

Why do we really blog?

It has been a very long time since I last blogged on this blog. I've had some major changes in my life since then - including the addition of 2 baby girls, one now aged 21 months and the other almost 8 months. That's right, they are only 13 months apart and I now really have my hands full with my 5 girls. We have also moved house once again to what was at the time a reasonable sized house to us as a family of 5...now we are a family of 7 and have quickly out grown this house over the past 2 years. It does have its perks though, we are right on the beach front and have fantastic views which somewhat compensate for our crowded house. Ultimately, we still dream of one day making Aliyah to Israel, I don't know if it will ever happen, Aliyah from Australia is quite a bit harder than it seems to be from the USA or UK. I would move tomorrow if I could. There are no programs for Aliyah from Australia, which is pretty disappointing, but, I will not give up on the hope of getting there in the end.

There are many other changes that we have had as a family, some big, some little, some significant, some not. Many to mundane to even bother listing here. I assume in the past 3 years since I have really blogged on a regular basis that there have been many changes to the Jewish blogosphere also. Bloggers come and go all the time - I've looked up a few of my old favorites who are still on my blogroll to sadly discover that they no longer blog. Even after taking such a long break from blogging myself, and after contemplating it numerous times, I have not been able to call blogging quits forever like some of my favorite bloggers have done. In my quick browse around the blogs, I have noticed Jewish bloggers who I have never heard of before, who are blogging regularly and climbing the ladder to the top of the JBlog world. So, I wonder if this post here of mine, on my blog that I haven't written on regularly for 3 years will even get read? Why do we really blog anyway? I guess it really doesn't matter anyway - for me its more about therapy rather than about pulling massive reader numbers - therapy that I would like to take up on a regular basis once again. At the end of the day, I guess everyone blogs for their own reasons...whatever they may be.



.... Just another day ....

Smooth Sailing??

On Friday I experienced some health issues (which I won't go into detail) which made me seriously concerned about my baby. So at 6am, I found myself going off to the emergency department for a day of blood tests, ultrasounds, IV drips and any other test you can possibly think of! Thankfully, there wasn't anyone else waiting when I arrived, so I was seen by the Doctor straight away. It wasn't until about 8am that people started filing in with all sorts of ailments.
After numerous hours and all the tests, it turned out that the baby is fine and they sent me home with 3 days of bed rest ahead of me and no real explanation of what caused the problems. I have been resting, but not in bed, I think I would go crazy spending 3 days in bed - I have had enough trouble just sitting about not being able to do anything much.
The girls have been pretty good at helping out - it took them about an hour to hang out a load of washing and a whole lot of arguing over who was hanging what and where!
It's back to work for me tomorrow, I just hope that it will be smooth sailing from now on!


..... Just another day ....

224 Days To Go

The girls are home from school this week - no, it's not holidays, a couple of the children at school have swine flu. I spoke to Amber's teacher last week, just to remind her of Amber's heart condition and her higher risk to swine flu. She suggested that if a child in the class appeared to have flu symptoms or a child in the school had been diagnosed with swine flu she would give me a phone call to come and pick up the girls. So on Monday the phone call came... while I was at work of course. Anyhow, the girls are home with some school work to do for the week. We just can't have Amber get swine flu - she has enough trouble handling the common cold at times.

On another subject, yesterday I went to my first antenatal appointment, which really just consisted of the doctor printing out an ultrasound request for me to take to the x-ray department to have a dating scan and find out the due date. This morning I was up at 7.30am drinking the required 1 litre of water before my ultrasound at 8.50am. The scan went well. I am officially 8 weeks pregnant now with the baby due on the 10th of March! Only 224 days to go! Lol!


.... Just another day ....

Easy Apple Crumble

One of my closest friends works in the rehabilitation unit of our local hospital. Recently she put in a lot of time and effort to put together a recipe book to raise funds for the rehab unit and the patients. The book has loads of great, quick and easy recipes mainly designed for the patients who have mostly suffered from stokes or been involved in serious accidents, for when they leave hospital and have to cook for themselves again.
I know pretty much everyone has a really easy apple crumble recipe, but it is one of my favourites and I have made two apple crumbles for the weekend....


Ingredients:

Fruit filling:
~ 4-6 cooking apples
~ 1/2 cup of sugar
~ 1/3 cup of water

Crumble:
~ 1 cup of plain flour
~ 3 dessertspoon brown sugar
~ 3 dessertspoon coconut
~ 3 dessertspoon parve butter/margarine

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C. Peel core and slice apples. Place apples in a saucepan with sugar and water. Simmer gently until soft. Allow to cool then pour into a pie or casserole dish. Place flour in a bowl and using your fingertips rub in butter. Add sugar and coconut and mix well. Sprinkle lightly over the top of the apples and bake until lightly browned on top.

I like to include a sprinkle of cinnamon in the apple filling too.

ENJOY!!
Shabbat Shalom!


.... Just another day ....

Three Years On

Three years on since the Second Lebanon War (2006), the years have passed, but we have not forgotten those lost during the war....




.... Just another day ....

Bircat Hachamah - the blessing of the sun

Once every 28 years....

Hundreds of people gathered on Wednesday morning at Bondi's Waverley Park to celebrate Bircat Hachamah.


Photo: Chabad of Sydney


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Just a few pics from around town

.... Just another day ....

Down by the river...

It's time, time that is to dust off the keyboard and post another post. It is also time to check up on my old blogging buddies, must drop by on quite a few blogs! I hope everyone is well.
Everything has been going really well for us here, we are all healthy and very happy. All of us have adjusted well.
I haven't really had a lot of time to take many pictures even though we are out and about far more now that we used to be, I usually forget to take my camera!
These pics I took a couple of months ago down near the train bridge at the river.... enjoy! :)










.... Just another day ....