Wishing you all a year of health, prosperity, hope, common sense, emotional well-being, tolerance except in cases of the intolerable, happiness except in cases where one needs to grieve, wisdom, understanding, and have fun, too.

This is a post for all of those who have a difficult time on the holidays. Devarim (Deuteronomy) 16:11 — וְשָׂמַחְתָּ לִפְנֵי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, אַתָּה וּבִנְךָ וּבִתֶּךָ וְעַבְדְּךָ וַאֲמָתֶךָ, וְהַלֵּוִי אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׁעָרֶיךָ, וְהַגֵּר וְהַיָּתוֹם וְהָאַלְמָנָה אֲשֶׁר בְּקִרְבֶּךָ–בַּמָּקוֹם, אֲשֶׁר יִבְחַר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, לְשַׁכֵּן שְׁמוֹ, שָׁם. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you, and [...]

These globe thistle flowers were growing all over the hillsides when we visited Banias in the Golan Heights, Israel last June. They give the hills a pretty purplish look. The Golan is a beautiful place to visit, with many places to hike and mountains to view. Today’s Flowers is hosted by Luiz Santilli Jr. Thank [...]

This is where I was for about two hours this morning, at the Friends of the Highland Park Library Book Sale. I volunteered for a little over an hour taking the money from the sales, and then I came back with my daughter to buy some books. Despite the pouring rain, patrons were coming in [...]

Lorri writes a beautiful blog called Jew Wishes. Her posts are heart-felt, as well as being well-written. She reviews books, films, cookbooks and gives general information and insights on Jewish topics. I particularly liked her post on repentance (with two film recommendations), where she writes: Pent up anger and other emotions lead to an unhealthy [...]

I took some photos of my oak leaf hydrangea on Friday. I bought this plant several years ago. At the time I really had in mind the type of hydrangea that has the blue or pink clusters of flowers. But the plant nursery did not have any of those, and the man recommended this one. [...]