This dianthus is the last flower in my front yard, other than a straggly, lanky, tall yellow snapdragon. It waves its purplish pink petals at us, like a flag of surrender to the oncoming winter months.
Today’s Flowers is hosted by Luiz Santilli Jr. Thank you, Luiz, for this lovely and comforting meme.
This watercolor is available for a limited time (until I do another one I like a lot!) for purchase as a greeting card at my Cafepress store.
In a previous post, I asked:
Let’s say your teenage or college age child goes away to school. How do you supply funds?
In this week’s parsha of Toldot, Yitzchak gives a blessing to his two sons, one to Esav and one to Yaakov.
Here’s Yaakov’s blessing (Genesis 27:28) —
Rabbi Frand (from Rabbi Frand on the Parashah 2) wonders why is the term for God here Elo-kim, which represents the Attribute of Divine Justice? Why not the Attribute of Mercy?
Rabbi Frand tells us Rashi’s explanation:
Although Yitzchak blessed Yaakov with much abundance, he made those blessings conditional. Yaakov has to deserve the abundance; the blessings would only come to fruition during those times that his descendants keep the Torah and mitzvos.
In contrast, here’s Esav’s blessing (Genesis 27:39) —:
And Isaac his father answered and said unto him: Behold, of the fat places of the earth shall be thy dwelling, and of the dew of heaven from above;
Esav’s blessing seems to be unconditional, with no strings attached. Why does Yaakov, the righteous son, only receive a conditional blessing, while the wicked Esav is blessed with guaranteed wealth?
Go back and review the choices I gave for how a parent could fund a child. If the parent gives a credit card, that is like Esav’s blessing. He doesn’t need to contact his parents further. Yaakov, on the other hand, needs to check in with his parents, to phone home, to maintain a relationship with God by doing mitzvot and keeping the Torah.
I would prefer just to be writing about the sunset my daughter and I saw on Raritan Avenue in Highland Park earlier this week. When we got into the car and I took my camera, she made me promise not to photograph any flowers on our trip. But she didn’t say anything about sunsets.
Unfortunately, there is too much urban drama going on in the home city of photo blogger magiceye. As I type this post, I am wondering about the safety of the Chabad rabbi and his wife, trapped by terrorists in the Nariman house in Mumbai. (Update: Chabad Rabbi and his wife in Nariman house reported killedtortured and then murdered, and more than 125 too many reported dead in Mumbai). Thank you to Dina in Jerusalem for posting about this. To use Twitter for updates, go to http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23mumbai or click http://hashtags.org/tag/mumbai/. For updates on Chabad, http://search.twitter.com/search?q=nariman (Nariman is the name of the Chabad house in Mumbai).
An upsetting post about the Taj by an eyewitness
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’ll say I’m thankful that there is an America.
I decided to call this post a workshop instead of a recipe, because you can choose a variety of stuffing ingredients to create your version of this dish.
First, bake the acorn squash until tender. I bake the squash whole for about an hour in a 350° oven. You can do the baking the day before you use it, if you like.
Now prepare your stuffing. You have so many choices! Klara sent me a few of her ideas, so if the ingredient was Klara’s idea, I’ll say so. (Thank you, Klara). And thanks for some mango tips from Helen and from Alyssa.
Helen's suggestion: mango
Alyssa's suggestion: Costco's mango salsa (brand is Santa Barbara and it has an O-U kosher certification - thanks, Helen)
For even more ideas, see Mimi in her Israeli Kitchen on Stuffed Stuff.
Mix your stuffing ingredients, cut your squash in half, stuff each half, and bake in a casserole dish for about twenty minutes before serving.
Happy creating, and happy Thanksgiving.
I made this sepia in Photoshop by desaturating the photo and then moving the color sliders to increase the yellow and magenta. For more information see Sepia Scenes. Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate!
I also submitted this to Thursday’s Challenge (this week is “soft”: Feather, Pillow, Cushion, Chair, Soft Focus, Soft Drink, Fluffy Animals or Toys, Hair,…).
I added a beet to my turmeric soup, and it turned orange. OK, maybe it turned a brighter redder orange from the pale yellowy turmericky orange it had been before?
Let’s say your teenage or college age child goes away to school. How do you supply funds?
1) Do you provide your child with funds on an as needs basis? When child runs out of money, said child will need to call home to ask for more.
2) Another method: an allowance. Parents deposit a monthly stipend into a bank account, against which their child can draw checks.
3) Do you give the child a credit card? Child pays with plastic.
Telling the kid “go out and get a job” isn’t an option here, but that might be how you would do it.
And what does this have to do with Yitzchak, Yaakov and Esav? Stay tuned.
After visiting the Native Plant Reserve in Highland Park, I went to the riverside and took some photos of the river. In this photo you can see the bridge for trains (thanks, Cosmic X) that go past College Campus of Rutgers University, over the river, and through the edge of Highland Park and Edison. I’m hoping to photograph the train tracks in a future post.
See Google Maps to see where this is.
I then turned and faced into the sun and photographed the bridge that leads from Highland Park into New Brunswick. The bridge is at the end of Raritan Avenue.
Here’s the same Route 27 bridge; you can see a bit of the office buildings in New Brunswick in this photo (I think that may be the Hyatt Hotel and further back, some condominiums).
For more watery photos, visit Watery Wednesday.
Robin of Around the Island awarded me with this lovely Superior Scribbler award. I rather like it; he’s got this cute determined look on his face.
I’m going to pass it on to Lorri at http://jewwishes.wordpress.com/ (she should work for Israel “hasbara” (public relations), she would do a much better job than whoever is in charge now), Michelle at RamblingWoods (learn about Benji the goose and view her beautiful upstate New York world), Shimshonit (who writes on motherhood and living in Israel and 1960’s/1970’s music), and Ralph aka Airhead55 (who is often posting pictures of bygone years; I love the nostalgia).
And then yesterday, when life was just as crazy as ever, I get this comment on my blog:
“u have been tagged”
Doesn’t that look like spam to you? I nearly marked it as spam, and then I noticed the name, Hadassah. Not a lot of spammers have the name “Hadassah”. Sure enough, it wasn’t spam, but Hadassah Sabo, delivering a meme to seven bloggers!
Here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog. (done)
2. Share 7 facts about yourself, some random, some weird. (done)
3. Tag 7 people (if possible) at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. (done)
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs. (in process)
Seven facts about me:
1. I love pottery (I did it for ten years), and I look forward to the day I can do it again.
2. I love to ski.
3. Painting helps me keep my sanity.
4. My favorite of all the websites I have designed is The Highland Park Public Library.
And a favorite post for each of my three kids (facts 5, 6 and 7):
And the lucky winners are:
Ilana-Davita
SuperRaizy
TriLCat, who is on bed rest and hardly ever blogs, but maybe this will coax her
Esser Agaroth
ImaBima
IsraMom
Hellibrarian
I feel so accomplished, now that I’ve finished this post!