Ani ayefah me'od halaila

Or something like that. Too many nights of only 4-5 hours of sleep. Too many nights staying up late working. But I met the deadline I was under (yay!) and can get back to some sense of normalcy.

So in lieu of an actual post that might actually say something... actual, here's what has been going through my brain lately:

• Teaching my children (ages 5 and 3) Hebrew; [Oldest Son came running down the stairs the other day, exclaiming, "Eema, Eema! Look! I'm wearing c'khol (blue)! And look! I have lavan (white) on my feet! See? Eema? See? Lavan! And c'khol! I'm wearing them! Eema, see?"]
• Trying to remember, review, and/or relearn Hebrew for myself; [I knew I was in trouble when I was asked on Friday if I spoke Hebrew and my answer was an instinctive, "Ani m'daberet solamente un poquito ivrit."]
• Working on scenes with Arik's character in As in Days of Old, which means not only figuring out how he should speak Hebrew well, but how (and if, and when) he likely would speak English badly
• Preparing my Torah reading for Shavuot

And entirely non-Hebrew related...

• I promised the kids we'd do something FUN tomorrow, and I have no idea whatsoever what that might be
• In the balancing act between business work, writing work (the novel), and Eema-ing, the housework, dream work, and anything related to fixing meals is losing. Badly.
• Learning to make a good guacamole has become personal
• Even a depressing blue funk can be improved with flowers for the window boxes and Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk ice cream

And odds and ends that have come up recently:

• Several people - unrelated and in different settings - have shared experiences they've had that would fit well into a book called Rabbis Behaving Badly. It was very disconcerting, hearing these experiences that left people not only distrusting the rabbinate but distrusting Judaism as a whole. And I feel powerless to do anything other than offer a sympathetic ear.

Clarification: Lest I be misunderstood, I want to be perfectly clear that those experiences mentioned above are but a small fraction of the experiences with rabbis in general. As with any other profession, a couple of folks making some bad choices can - but should not - color the truly wonderful, meaningful, and sometimes excruciatingly difficult work that all of their other well-behaving colleagues do on a daily basis. Now back to our regularly scheduled program...

• Dandelions grow REALLY fast in May
• Children love dandelions
• Pulling dandelions is much more fun when children help

Okay, I'm off to bed since my brain can't function anymore.

Laila tov!