HOME & FAMILY

"Aviva, it's been a long winter, with the children being on antibiotics just about every month. I'm sure some of the other neighbors are in the same boat. Let's come up with a fun night out that won't cost much but that will enrich us. I've got it — a women's Adar party!"

The Many Against the Few
Bais Yaakov -
From a Tender Seedling to a Fruitful Tree
by Yehudit Golan

Part V

A Difficult Struggle

The neighborhood of Musrera, located east of Meah Shearim — was an Arab neighborhood which was conquered in the war and abandoned by its residents. As a frontier town on the border with Jordan, it was then populated by new immigrants of Sephardic origin.

PUSH IT RIGHT!
by Tzipie Wolner

When my second child was born, I shopped around for a double stroller. I was looking for something compact so that I wouldn't have to leave my children outside unattended while I shopped. The first time that I put my two little ones into the newly purchased stroller, all the rules of correct posture flew right into the gutter as I heaved and sweated up the street. That stroller was so, so heavy!

Skivving
[better known in Americanese as `copping out']
by A. Ross, M.Ed.

The verb 'to skive' is actually a slang expression, but it best describes how someone evades work unobtrusively. There are children, and adults too, who disappear when they feel they might be called upon to do some work. They are suddenly there when the work is completed. The following is a typical example of skiving, or skiving off, as they call it.

Your Medical Questions Answered!
by Joseph B. Leibman, MD

Fad diets in the news again. First it was low fat, then high fat-low carbohydrates, now it is — according to an article I received — bread and vegetables. The diets will come and go, but some things never change and these are the facts: If your parents are overweight — you will likely be too, so be careful early.

POETS' PRE-PURIM PAGE

Faces
by Drora Matlofsky

Faces peering out of windows
Faces turned towards the Kosel
Faces buried in today's newspaper

Locked faces on the bus
Curious faces at the fair
Laughing faces at the performance
Crying faces at the funeral

Serious, concentrated faces at the exam
Polite faces greeting one another
Bored faces in the classroom
Funny faces in the playground
Smiley faces on car windows

Official faces emprisoned in passports
Tzaddik faces on the wall
Frightened faces of war
Pale face of the new mother
Peering into her newborn's pink face

Young faces, old faces,
Happy faces, loving faces,
Angry faces, loving faces
Tired faces

The hidden face of the moon
Protecting us from the blinding face of the sun

Faces behind faces
What is hiding behind the facade?

The Dance of Time

by Drora Matlofsky

Let's dance the dizzy dance of time,
Alarm clock bells, hear how they chime!
Pop goes the weasel
Ding dong goes my head
It was never intended to be easy
Or so they've said . . .

I hardly have time to realize
That this is real, that I'm alive
This is no dream, I know:
I pinch myself often enough
As soon as I open my eyes
Colors and blurred visions begin to whiz by

Let's dance the dizzy dance of time
Spin around
Around the clock
Try to catch the whirling tick-tock
I'm running, chasing after a minute,
The minute has turned into an hour,
An hour that will never be ours.

My head is going round and round
Like the crazy merry-go-round
Where I sat on a white horse's back
A few years back . . .

Can't I go back?
Wait a minute . . .
I mean . . .
What do I mean?
Time flies, they say, when you're having fun.
A Poem

by Ruth Lewis

"Hello? This is Mrs. L . . . "
"Yes?"
"I'm an editor, looking for poems for
a new anthol... no, no, sweetheart.
Ima doesn't let! . . . for a new anthology."

"I see. What kind of poems?"
"Oh, they could be about . . . no, NO! You'll
break Ima's computer, if you bang on it like that!
Poems about being a Jewish wife, a Jewish mother.
Poems about the challenge of trying to . . . Oh!
Are you two going to stop fighting over that silly toy,
Or is Ima going to put it away for you?!
. . . trying to balance the demands of . . . yes, honey,
you can have just one. Let me hear you make a nice loud brochoh! Omein!
. . . the demands of running a home and yet developing our creativity.
Poems about . . . NO, NO DARLING.
IMA NEEDS THOSE PAPERS VERY, VERY MUCH!
Here are some other papers you can color on . . .
Poems about . . . oh, dear, what was I saying?"

Write a poem?
She IS a poem!