Last night I was at a really nice Hanukah party and heard some really nice thoughts on the holiday season that I would like to shear with you.

Whether you are Jewish or Christian, this is the season of lights. The Jewish people light the menorah for 8 days of lights and the Christians light up the streets and their homes with beautiful, colorful Christmas lights. There are also many other nations that light candles or lanterns as a sign of celebrating various holidays and festivals throughout the year. For example, the Hidus have Diwali, a festival of lights (where they celebrate the homecoming of Lord Ram of Ayodhya, after a 14-year exile).

What do all these light symbol? Why are candles, lights and lanterns used to symbolize celebration or holiday? The winter months, especially during the month of December, are the shortest days of the year, making them the darkest and coldest days of the year as well. This is the time of the year where people tend to stay home, go to sleep early and often get the winter blues. This is true of today and it is true of 1,000 years ago when people still lived in clay huts.

The holiday lights come to symbolize the inner light and strength that a person needs to find to get him through these short, dark and cold days. The actual lighting (or switching on) of these lights symbolizes the ability a person has in finding his inner light and strength that will help him through the winter. The lights are a symbol of the personal happiness that needs to come from within each person especially during this time of the year.

Happy Holiday!!

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You walk into the bathroom at your dentist office and you bump into the lady that serves you coffee at Aroma. It’s awkward and you don’t really care to smile and acknowledge her existence. But what would happen if we took it upon ourselves to say hello to everyone we meet? Well, maybe everyone is a bit much. It’s OK not to acknowledge the stranger waiting at the crosswalk with you, but what about everyone else? How about that lady you keep bumping into from the 4th floor, or the guy who rolls your sushi at lunch? Its unexpected, but saying hello will certainly put a smile on their face. And, yes, it really is that easy to make someone’s day.

I’m sure that everyone would benefit if we were all just a little bit friendlier. Acknowledging someone else’s existence sends positive reinforcement to that person. Everyone wants to be noticed and everyone wants to feel that they are OK. “Hello” sends a message of acceptance. Say hello today and tomorrow someone may pat you on the back as well.

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It really doesn’t get any funnier than this. I came across these shoes when I was doing some research on-line. These are the funniest things I’ve ever seen. It’s a shame that they only come in size 0-6 month. My kid is already turning the corner on one year old, so it looks like I saved 35$. I am, however, tempted to buy them as a gift for my next friend that has a baby girl. They are just too funny to pass on. I assume the reason they don’t make them in bigger sizes is for safety reasons. Once your kid can walk, (or even stand), these shoes can’t be all that comfortable and probably not the safest form of foot support either. But check out the CNN video clip. It’s just hysterical!

Embedded video from CNN Video

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My mother-in-law, who is a big fan of chicken or vegetable soup decided to shake things up last weekend when we came to stay. A big soup lover, she knows to always have a pot of soup for me when I come. For me, this kills two birds with one stone. I get to eat healthy and not break my diet, and Liah (my 11 month old) has something to eat as well. Like-mother like-daughter, she loves soup (especially the veggie mush).

Long story short, my mother-in-law made corn soup and it was a killer soup. Of course I tried to make it at home and it didn’t taste half as good, but what can I say, shortcuts don’t always work, especially when it comes to cooking. So here’s the recipe, but don’t make the same mistakes I did. Use only fresh mushrooms and freshly cracked black pepper. It makes the whole difference.

One can of light corn (no sugar added)
1 package of fresh mushrooms
1 onion
Pepper
Salt
Mushroom soup mix

Blend the can of corn until kernels are mashed
Put kernels and corn liquid from can into pot
Fry one onion and add to pot
Mince mushrooms and add to pot
Add salt, pepper and mushroom soup mix to taste
Bring to a boil and let simmer for 45min-1hour

Bonus: Did you know that corn is considered a whole grain???

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After a life long of Monday blues, moving to Israel has shaken things up a bit. Weekends here are Friday and Saturday as opposed to Saturday and Sunday, which means I am entitled to my Monday blues on Sunday. Of course there is no song to go along with them Sunday blues, but that won’t stop me from feeling ‘em.

The week starts out with the usual work-out at 5am, which is normally fine, but on Sunday its always hardest. Why? Cause I sleep late on Saturday which leads to late bed time Saturday night. I fall asleep somewhere around 2am and then find it difficult waking up at 5am for my morning run. Next comes the Sunday traffic which could kill even the most chilled out person. A 25 min drive to work takes almost 2 hours on Sunday morning. I’d love to know why. If anyone is looking for a good thesis topic, there you go! By the time I get to work, I’m tiered, annoyed and usually hungry which makes it even worse. Don’t mess with me when I’m hungry.

The only thing that solves the Sunday blues is shopping. And worse yet, I’m on a money diet (read my previous two posts). So pretty much I’m stuck in a rut today. I could use some candy, but I’m on a food diet as well. I’ll wait for Monday. Things are always better on Monday, right?

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After the first unsuccessful attempt at saving our nearly non existing bank account, I read an article in the Readers Digest about a family’s experiment to save money. The idea was simple yet genius. Just don’t spend money. The family in the article took this idea to the extreme. They canceled phone lines, internet connections, magazine subscriptions and even stopped using the car to save money on fuel. The idea was brilliant. Their goal was to survive on $20 a week.

After carefully considering my options (there were none), I decided to get Moti (my husband) in on the idea and see if we too could survive on $20 a week. Of course we wouldn’t cancel phone lines or G-d forbid our internet connection, but we wouldn’t spend any cash beyond the $20 designated for the weekly shopping. So no more Pepsi Max, and defiantly no more veggie burgers and yogurts. I can say hello to bread and milk and a very big hello to my mother-in-laws kitchen only 15 min away. Our goal is to stick with it for 6 weeks and hopefully save $1,000 (or more) and learn to appreciate what our money can do for us.

I have a feeling that this experiment will lead to a terrible shopping binge the minute it’s over. Cross your fingers for me.

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With the addition of a new member in the family come additional expenses as well. No one ever warned me about how many diapers a baby poos in every day and how much baby food costs when you’re not nursing! Even with two full time working parents, it’s not easy to cover all the new and very often unexpected expenses. I mean, teething medicine? Can’t they just skip the whole growing teeth stage and go straight to dentures? It would save a lot on braces. And how can I resist a good steak or new earrings when they feel like my best friends?

So, in an attempt to salvage the situation and even manage to put aside money each month, my husband and I came up with a plan. We carefully analyzed how much money we make and put together a realistic budget that we swore to follow like the Bible. I also promised never to use my credit card. This sneaky device lets you purchase things that come back to haunt you at the end of the month. Pure evil, I say, pure evil.

Well, it’s been a few months since we started with this plan. It seemed fool proof and I felt confident that I could easily stick with it. I religiously wrote down everything that we spent and managed the money meticulously. But then I started to smell the good life and was tempted to buy “just” one thing or “just” one more thing. Of course I was writing these things down as miscellaneous, so they always “fit” into the budget. But at the end of the month, these things did not fit into the budget and things were looking bad again.

So, in a second attempt to salvage the situation, my husband and I came up with a second plan. Or should I say, we read about a great idea in the Readers Digest.

Stay tuned for my next post….

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The years have gone by and I now find myself in the shoes of those friends. To buy or not to buy, that is the question. I am a strong believer in eating healthy (if you haven’t noticed by now), and what isn’t healthy for me, is certainly not healthy for my 1 year old kid. So I continue to stand strong and refuse to buy the junk food for my child and fall into the same trap that so many of my friends still find themselves in today. If there is no junk food in the house for the kids, then there is no junk food in the house for Mommy and that’s a win-win for both.

Of course no one wants there kid to be the freak or the outsider, so junk food is not out of the picture entirely. Even I need a “cheat” once in a while (or twice in a while), but at home I’d like to set the standard for healthy eating. A burger on a night out at the mall is ok and candy on a road trip is not the end of the world. But at home, where the family eats on a regular basis, standards need to be set, taught and kept.

My husband dares me to stick to this philosophy as my kid gets older. I dare him to bring that kind of food home!

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Ted striker (played by Robert Hays) is telling the story of how he and Elaine (played by Julie Hagerty) met. There is a scene where the two of them go to a native African tribe to get away from bad memories of the war. Ted teaches the tribe men how to play basketball and Elaine shows the tribal woman all about Tupperware and how to store food in the case of the next monsoon. I absolutely could not help but giggle. Being as I am a total Tupperware junkie. I also noticed how today all that Tupperware she was showing them would be expensive vintage stuff.

Just wanted to share….

If you haven’t seen this movie or you haven’t seen it in a while, go watch it (again). Every line will make you laugh.

Snazzy Moms presents : Video by athaung

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So here I am at 5:30 in the morning on my running machine trying to get a good work out in before the sun comes up and I can’t seem to get my hart rate up. Now no hart rate = no good work out, right? VH1 is playing what they call “chill out music” which as you can imagine, would put anyone back to sleep even on a running machine. And MTV is playing some jazzy music that just doesn’t get me going, especially not at this unearthly hour of the morning. But there is music out there that will get even a dead person moving. Here are a few of my favorite picks.

1. Cascada
2. H Two O
3. Kadtaluna
4. Ace of Bace
5. Rhyanna

Snazzy Moms presents : Cascada © – WordPress

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