kaleidoscoping chaos...: Memories of a Caribbean Shabbot!

Can it be a whole week back from vacation already?!?!

NO WAY!

Yep, it is!

It was a busy busy busy week! Jonah went back to school and Karate. Vera started her new school. Vera and I started our new yoga class together. Yesterday, Jonah, Vera & I managed to meet up with some of our playgroup buddies for a morning play date!

I started my "get healthy" routine! I went to the gym twice and swam for 30 minutes each time and I ran two times this week for 30 minutes. I have my "workout evaluation" today at the gym - so that will be five days, five workouts this week!

I went to my mindfulness sangha on Monday night. Jocelyn and I went to our mindfulness class on Wednesday. We are both getting up together at 5am (without kids hopefully) and eating our healthy plain Greek yogurt with honey, every morning! Ritualizing being healthy - they say that is a good thing - a very good thing!

And today it is finally Shabbot again tonight. Amen.

Last week, we sat in Jamaica at the resort, and had our own little Shabbot right there in the communal "dining hall" type of buffet restaurant. It was the only dinner we actually went to a restaurant with the kids. Usually, we brought the dinner back to our room and sat on the terrace with the kids and ate - but we switched it up a bit for Shabbot.

And the universe cooperated. It happened that night there were candles on every table. We snagged one and brought it over to a little kids table. They were also serving little twisted rolls - that looked just like little challahs - Score! I filled the kids' sippy cups with juice for the wine - Jonah insisted on pineapple juice - hey, we were in the Caribbean for goodness sake! And we sat there, at the little table, in the middle of the buffet restaurant, on an island in the Caribbean sea - after a week of running, playing, laughing, swimming, eating, dancing, and being with each other and all our new friends from Sesame Street and beyond - and we took a breath, a deep breath and breathed in Shabbot. We said our prayers and ate the foods and gave each other very big Shabbot Shalom hugs. It was good.

Today, Jonah is the Shabbot boy a school. We made a little book for him to bring in to school. It is all about how busy our week on vacation was, but how on Friday, it was still Shabbot even though we were on vacation. He picked out all the photos to put in the book and then pasted them all into it.

Below are some of the ones from our vacation he picked to show how busy we were and it ends with our pictures of our vacation Shabbot dinner.

To everyone everywhere - we wish you SHABBOT SHALOM - and all that really means is - a few moments of peaceful rest! We all deserve that. It is part of what being really mindful is all about. Sometimes it means you need to take a vacation... and then it also means when you are on vacation you need to remember to rest as well. On this Friday night, the Friday night before a long weekend of big moments and celebrations (it is Martin Luther King Jr Day and Inauguration weekend here in Washington, DC) I am excited to light the candles tonight.

Good Shabbas everyone!