Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Tough love



Benjamin Franklin on "spreading the wealth" around...

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

After hundreds of years of failed redistribution, the nuts on the left still don't understand these simple concepts.


(hat tip: Right Klik)

(hat tip: momlogic)

A rose is a rose....

"...not the political Islam, not the militant Islam, not the radical Islam, not the Wahabi Islam, but Islam itself. I truly believe that the West has invented this [sic] terms for the sake of being politically correct."

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

My report card

Ada: Are you a proneshiful mommy?

Me: Am I what?

Ada (a bit louder in hopes of clarification): Are you a proneshiful mommy?

Me: Pro-nesh-i-ful? I'm sorry, sweetie, I don't know what that means.

Ada: You know, like, very awesome.... Like a proneshiful lifeguard....

Me: Oh, a professional mommy!!

Ada (brightening): Yes! Are you?

Me: Well, what do you think?

Ada: I think you are.

I've arrived. :)

Outreach

The girls were discussing how to interact with the other girls in their gymnastics group. Sari decided she will be friendly to everyone. She noted that most of the kids probably aren't Jewish but that's okay. "And," she added, "If they are Jewish, I'll for sure be friends with them! I can even teach them stuff that maybe they don't know!"

Never too young for harbatzat Torah. :)

A simple solution

On our way back from a trial gymnastics session, the girls and I were talking about recreational versus competitive gymnastics. I explained that sometimes a coach might notice that a student is really good and decide to ask them to be part of the team. We went on to discuss how we were NOT going to be on any teams because that means devoting hours every day to practice and traveling for meets, not to mention wearing leotards in public.

Ada thoughtfully suggested, "Sari, maybe we should try not to be so good."

Sunday, June 27, 2010

BIG news

Mordechai and I were the only ones home as Shabbat was winding down yesterday. We got into conversation about the Twin Towers and terrorism and Israel and Arabs and then - oil spills. (As in, what's worse? 9/11 or the oil spill? He's always asking comparison questions like that....)

He said to me, "You know how I know the oil spill is really BIG? They were even talking about it on espn!"

Monday, June 14, 2010

Pre-K beauty tips

A while back, Ada announced one night that she wants to take out her pony holder before she goes to sleep. I thought it might make her hair pretty messy and unruly in the morning but she insisted that "Ayelet (a classmate of hers with thin straight hair) sleeps without a pony holder and that's how her hair always looks so nice!" Who am I to argue with a five-year-old's beauty secrets?

A few days later, I'm on the phone with Ayelet's mom and I related to her the conversation Ada and I had had and she laughed. Ayelet had been telling her mom that she wants to sleep with a pony holder because "that's how Ada does it and that's why her hair comes out so nice!"

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Fashion faux-pas? I think not!



me: Oh, Ada! I told you - no stripes with florals!

Ada (looking chagrined): Uch, I forgot!

(Yes, she went to school like that.)

Yom Ha'atzma'ut

Sari woke up very excited to celebrate Israel's birthday. She asked me, in all her 7-year-old innocence, "Is this the date Hashem promised Israel to Avraham?"

(p.s. A friend pointed out that Avraham was born in 1948 - the "same" year that Israel became a state. How's that for confusing her further? Hee.)

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Not quite the Queen...

At the seder, when asked why I was pouring everyone's first cup of wine for them, I was ready with the answer that, on the seder night, we act like kings and queens and have our wine poured for us. Ada pipes up, "So you're not the queen. You're like the servant!"

Hmph.