HOME & FAMILY

Part II

OUTFITTING CHILDREN

Buying vs. Sewing

As a general rule, it's cheaper to buy ready-made simcha clothing for children under the age of 14 than to have it sewn.

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE
The Feat of Walking
by R' Zvi Zobin

"Your foot did not swell." The Israelites marched through the desert -- in the same shoes -- for forty years without suffering orthopedic problems.

A Stitch in Time
by Rifca Goldberg

Remember the colonial quilting bees? How about setting the clock back to domestic tranquility times and re- introducting needlecraft as a togetherness family activity for winter afternoons?

Womenly homemaking arts -- serving many purposes. The ultimate Eishes Chayil.

COMMUNICATION
Elementary -- or Not -- My Dear
by Bayla Gimmel

Sometimes, like Bezalel, we have had to be in the shadow of Hashem to figure out the meaning behind people's words! Think twice before you make `obvious' deductions.

Where's My Child?
by A. Ross, M.Ed

There are many easy-going, placid parents who can control a dozen children without losing their cool. If a child falls, they pick him up, or even call to him to get up, and kiss the hurt all-better. If a child wants to go out in the rain without a raincoat, they say, "Let him go. He'll soon come home when he feels wet."

LETTERS, EITZES, FEEDBACK

Response

Although I anticipated a strong response to my article on Natural Childbirth vs. Epidural Anesthesia, the outpouring of overwhelming support that has reached me, and assumedly, Yated, has suprassed even my greatest expectations. Apparently there are many other Jewish mothers out there who, as myself, have only the happiest of memories of their natural childbirths.

Beit Natan -- Women's Community Health Resource Center

On Tuesday, 23rd of Adar I (Feb. 25th, 2003), Beit Natan will sponsor a "Women's Health Day" in cooperation with Hadassah Hospital's Women's Center and Neshei Agudath Israel. It will be held in downtown Jerusalem at the Prima Palace (formerly the Central Hotel, off Davidka Sq.), from 9:30 - 15:00. With an emphasis on preventative health care, women are invited to hear about how we can promote better health by developing proper health habits.

POET'S CORNER

The Canopy of Mirrors
by Sara Gutfreund

The chuppa is white
Its roof ripples like falling water
The kalla dreams of mirrors
Mirrors looking into mirrors
In an endless line of refracting light.
There are the lemon drop counters in her grandmother's kitchen
The stiffness of her first saddle shoes
The crinkle of new notebooks
There is her mother at the pearl white vanity table
The smell of warm brick as her father lights the fireplace
There are the silver-walled hallways of her high school
The soft lights of ivy-colored libraries.
The kalla watches the sunlight weave its way through the crevices of her diamond ring
She stares as it dances through waves of the navy blanket of ocean stretching beyond them
There she can see the slivers of reflections yet to be
The shadows of children not yet born
The angelic little girl with the chosson's long eyelashes
The boy with the kalla's hair, the color of sand
The apartment of sun-bleached stones
The hushed conversations around waning Shabbos lights.
And finally the kallah sees the way they will look at each other
Like staring into a mirror filled with dawn
Reflecting light back to each other