Poppy Bear and Yossi Bear

 me: "I miss Poppy"

Michoel: "Why? Is it his yartzeit?"

me: "No, I just miss him."

No particular reason. Just thinking of him, and really really missing him. Poppy and Grandma ... the one stable thing in my childhood I could always count on. I've mentioned it before ... my parents divorced when I was 2. My mom was seven months pregnant with my brother. This was in 1968, when women stayed married no matter what. No one, and I mean NO ONE, was divorced. Growing up, I didn't know another child who had divorced parents. I was the "weird" kid that came from a "broken home". Everyone had a mom and dad. I had Poppy and Grandma. If my mom was being mean to me, I would call up Poppy and Grandma and they would come take me to their house. Sunday mornings was breakfast at their house ... seven layer cake (YUM!) and bagels with lox. Or soft boiled eggs in these cute little cups. I would sit on Poppy's lap and he would read me the Sunday comics. I didn't understand Andy Capp, but Poppy read this with an English accept. Sometimes instead of breakfast we would go to Cantors for a Jewish dinner. Poppy was the one who pulled the glass out of my foot when I was running around barefoot in the park. (That was the last time too! To this day I won't go barefoot.) Poppy was the one who cheered me on when I wanted to sew and later to embroider. Poppy was a man of few words, but he had a heart full of love. And years later, there is still a hole in mine.

Poppy had a plastic's recovery business. He wore button down shirts and there was always a pen in his pocket and a handkerchief in his pocket.  In the summer he wore light weight tee shirts and in the winter he wore flannel ones. He always wore a tee shirt under them too. Poppy was such a gentle and kind soul.

I was organizing my sewing room, and I found several shirts of Poppy's I had set aside. I am not 100% sure what I planned to do with them, but I sent to my good friend Susan. (Susan deserves an entire post of her own ... one day soon my dear!)  Susan donates her times to her local hospice by making bears out of clothes of loved ones. I mentioned Poppy's shirts to her, and she offered to make me a bear. Not only did she make one for me, but she made one for my mom as well. Poppy has sat in the place of honor on my bed.

Susan has repeatedly asked me, "Do you want a Yossi Bear."  I always tell her no, I don't want. I didn't want to trouble for it. However, when I was going through his armoire and found his little onesies, I changed my mind. Yes Susan! I do want a Yossi Bear.  So I sent them off. 

She sent me a sneak peak, and sent the bear off to me. Lo and behold, Yossi Bear arrived on a very emotionally hard day. (If you followed the Israeli news, I am referring to the tragedy in Meron.)  What a prefect day for my Yossi Bear to arrive.

Susan asked for a picture of me and Yossi Bear. Happy to oblige. Thank you Susan, for your labor of love. Sending you hugs and kisses. And now Poppy Bear and Yossi Bear ... together forever ....

Three Hikes in One Day (March 5, 2020)

Ya, this little guy was so cute, who could resist a picture???

 I love, love, love Israel. It's beyond gorgeous. It's breathtakingly beautiful. Even when it's overcast and blah, it's still GORGEOUS! I can't get enough of it. I loved going touring with Tami from Nof Tours. You may remember we used her on our last time. She is fun and spunky and overall very knowledgeable about Israel. She has a lot of energy and it's obvious she loves what she does.  Traveling with me and Tami was my favorite daughter in law Zahava. (OK, so she's my only daughter in law to date. But she's still my favorite and I love her dearly. She's sweet inside and out and I'm so blessed to have her as part of my family.)

The first stop was Mt. Arbel. Now granted it's been a year, but I think we spur of the moment added it, because looking back at my itinerary from last year, it's not even on it. I think Tami just asked me if we wanted to do it. We had spoken about it two years previously, so I was like, ya, sure, let's do it! My head has a lot of great ideas, but my body isn't always on board with it. LOL.

Notice the snow capped mountain in the background? I kept trying to get pictures of it to show my husband - See! There is snow in Israel!

Let me tell you, this "easy to moderate" hike was a little more than I bargained for. Especially since back in 1999 I made an interesting discovery when we went to visit Yossi's donor in Colorado. He took us to the Royal Gorge, and you walk out in the middle of this huge grand canyon type hole and woah! Guess who found out she suddenly has a fear of heights? Yup! Me! Never had it before, and now it's followed me around. So here we are on top of this mountain and Tami and Zahava are patiently waiting for old me who is scared she's gonna fall off the side of the mountain, which thankfully didn't happen. 

Didn't I tell you it was gorgeous? 

After we finished Mt. Arbel, we headed to the Banias. Now this was my third attempt at going there. Since I am so laid back and have no idea of time, we got there very close to closing time. I still really wanted to see Nimrod's Fortress, so basically, we did the "Niagara Falls" version of the Banias waterfall. For those of you who don't know the story, when I was pregnant with Chanie, we went to Toronto. On our way back to the US, we stopped at Niagara Falls.  We literally made a thirty second stop there ... I rolled down the window as we drove by ... we didn't even stop the car to get out. Ever since then, something that is a super fast trip is a Niagara Falls version. 

So we get to the park, and we were almost running to get to the water fall. Truthfully, it's was probably gorgeous, but I was so intent on getting through it and getting to Nimrod's Fortress that we probably spent all of maybe 3 minutes there.

Sorry I didn't get the best pictures. There was a mist and I was scared my camera or phone would get ruined.

The hike normally takes a leisurely half hour to 45 minutes. We did it in under 15 minutes. LOL.

Then off to Nimrod's Fortress. Which interesting enough, isn't actually Nimrod's Fortress. Like a lot of places in Israel, I'm guessing someone called it this and the name sorta stuck? It's some really cool fortress that I have no idea why, but I loved exploring it. I was thoroughly exhausted and still, I pushed myself on to walk around see it. I do have to rate it up high on one of the really cool places I went and I would so do it again.

After that, we went to Tzefat for sunset and dinner, and then back to Jerusalem. 

As a side note -- NEVER EVER EVER PLAN THREE HIKES IN ONE DAY when you are out of shape. I found muscles I didn't know were on me the next few days. The next day I was soooo sore. Going up and down the steps the second day after on Shabbos was so hard! While I was trying to cram in as much as possible, I do think maybe I over did it, although, in hind sight, it was good I did do it because my trip did get cut short.

Feeling brave & Friends Forever (Mar 4, 2020)

 So it took three trips to Israel for me to get up the courage to take a bus by myself. That and the fact that no one would go with me or pick me up. LOL LOL LOL!!!

There is a special bond that we bereaved moms share. When you go through the worst possible experience a mom can go through, a mom who has walked in that path, no matter how different her journey is, you become soul sisters. I have so many special and wonderful friends I've made on this journey. Which is amazing, because truly, it is one of the loneliest paths to go on. And yet, there are women who hold your hand and pull you up, and in turn, you grab their hands and pull them up when they need it. 

Chana Leah is one such soul sister I met along the way. Thank you Our Tapestry for bringing us together. 

On Wednesday, I took the bus to the main bus station, and from there, caught another bus to Modi'in. Chana Leah picked me up at the bus stop. (Don't ask how confusing it was to find each other ... I got off at the wrong stop. Thankfully, I have a bright pink backpack that is probably noticeable from a mile away.)

We went together to a glass fusion workshop. You pick out what type of dish you want to make, and you glue little pieces of glass to it. The woman then heats it up very high for hours and hours and the glass melts and fuses into one with the dish. Chana Leah picked a seder plate and I choose a challah cover. Then we went back to her house for lunch. I am enchanted with the little wild flowers that grow in the spring all over Israel. Here is one such little flower-

Chana Leah felt that rather then just sending me on my way, she felt I needed a little bit of her special therapy. So we strapped the kids into their car seats and headed off to the beach. 

That's Tel Aviv in the distance. 

Yes, that is a whole section of sea shells.  I actually brought a whole baggie full of them to give to someone but sadly, that store closed from covid. I was not able to give him the shells. I am keeping them in a jar in my china cabinet.

The day was such a peaceful and serene day. I didn't even realize how wound up I was until I was able to fully unwind. (The day before was a hard day. There are no trigger warnings that TODAY is going to be a hard day for you, even all these years later.) So really, Chana Leah was able to intuit that this was just what I needed. Even looking at the pictures gives me a very calm and happy feeling.

After I left Chana Leah, I headed back to Jerusalem where I got a lovely sunset from the bus.

Finally stop of the day was meeting with another bereaved mom. We went to the kever of Shmuel HaNavi.  What a zchus it is to just hop over to such holy places! I have a whole list of names I carried with me, and when I came to a holy area, I prayed for those on the list.

A beautiful and fitting end to a fantastic day.

Mar 1 - Mar 3 Mitzpe Ramon - part 2

 Mon - Mar 2 continued

About Liav Levi from Desert Shepherd ... one thing about him that came across was his love for the desert. Now I have to be honest ... I love bright bold colors. I really have no favorite color. I love multi-color, if that is a choice. Big bright bold colors. Green, purple, turquoise, blue and pink, yellow, orange, red, all of them, I love them. I don't really like the desert because it's one color scheme - brown. Dark brown, light brown, sienna, etc ... all those shades of brown, so there is really no love for the desert from me. However, every time I am in Israel, I find myself intrigued with the desert and it's colors. Now Liav taught us a lot about the desert. He explained how the machtesh was formed, and how when you dig in the quarry over here it affects other areas. Basically, there is a whole ecosystem going on there and it's important not to mess around with it. It was really more than just showing us look at this cool formation here and look at this cool rock over there ... it was a lesson in the desert from someone who loves it.

After the jeep tour, we went to Camel Hill to see the sunset. We had to rush to get there in time. 

That's the look out that we had about 10 minutes to get to the top of. But -- the view was spectacular!

We went out to dinner, and then we went to this cool little hidden gem that I had found out about from Love Love Israel. There is a secret walk where you follow the path to the end and find a bunch of glow in the dark rocks that form --- something -- I can't tell you -- you have to find it for yourself. 

h/t: http://www.astronomyisrael.com/2019/09/the-milky-way-trail-in-mitzpe-ramon.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR1CrMb4lsWMXuOF2ya-YyIfR1z8vIYHltbG7olIPDwrk9wfCbctgTbmDIA

The next day we went checked out of the hotel, and went to a place whose name I forgot. (This is what happens when you wait over a year to write about your trip! LOL) People call it the colored sands. There is a little lake in the middle, and little piles of different colored sands. I had brought the girls some little jars and funnels and they filled up their jars with colored sands. Then we headed back to Jerusalem. 

On the way back, we passed the spot where David Ben-Gourion and his wife are buried. Such a gorgeous and peaceful spot.

We stopped at the one of the most fun children's museums (second only to the one in Lynchburg VA!). The girls loved it. It's several floors high and the kids can wander around on any floor they want.

There were giant human sized puzzles for them to play with. A race where you run against your friend (or mom as Huvi did) and hit the timer to see how long it takes you. There are human sized games where you roll the dice and walk along (think shoots and ladders). There was a whole section where the kids could put on a performance and they loved playing Head Bands with a giant seat with rotating pictures. Right next door to this super cool kids museum was a terrific park. Yours truly rode the zip line!

As the sun went down, we continued our journey back to Shauly's apartment ... with a stop for dinner ... at .... yup ... 

Kosher Ikea. And no, I didn't get Swedish meatballs. (I don't remember, it was something boring like grilled chicken since nothing is really organic or non GMO.)