A Smallish Post

Hello All,

It's been waaaay too long.... So since i'm an all-or-nothing-type-a-girl, and SO much happens every day over here, I've felt like I the job of writing it all out was super overwhelming... and so I never did it. I kept thinking that one day I'll have a lot of time and just spend it writing and updating my blog... but the more time that passed, the more things happened, and the more overwhelming it became... which brings us to today. :D
So now I'm basically doing Avodas HaMiddos by combating my weakness and deciding to sit down and write a short post with a half hour of my time (all I have today) and force myself not to freak out about not including EVERYTHING. :) ['stop being a perfectionist shayne! Your family doesn't care- they just want to hear from you... 'says the little white angel on the right shoulder]

Without further ado, I present to you my Smallish Post....

Background in one paragraph: Lots of funny, awesome, amazing, cool, interesting and new things have happened since I got to Israel and P'ninim at the beginning of this year. I am working as a Madricha in P'ninim and I take a doula (birthing coach) course also. My P'ninim job is kind of like being a 24/7 mommy to 90 girls at once. Luckily in this very large family there is more than 2 parents so we try to split the responsibility ;) My doula course is amazing and almost done. Aside from attending the classes, I have done 3 births out of the 5 required to graduate, I am in the middle of taking a childbirth ed. class, and I've done 2/3 hospital tours. I really love it and am working really hard to become the best doula I can be, including by putting myself out there in Hebrew settings within the field so that I can be comfortable and fluent with the language.

Right now we are preparing for a massively awesome shtick for Rosh Chodesh Adar on Rabbi Meisels. I'm pretty confident he doesn't read this blog regularly so he won't see this until after its done, but just in case, I'm not going to post yet what we are doing. :)
Also happening today in Israel is a huge Atzeres (gathering of prayer) to join the Chareidi world in protest of the governments attempt to force all men to the army draft even if they want to be learning Torah. Obviously this can be a life altering decision here in Israel. If all boys must be drafted, then there will be no yeshivos. Without the Yeshivos and Torah learning, I can't imagine what the fate of our nation would be. Really, this is a case of life or death for the Jewish people. Taking Jews away from torah is like taking fish out of water. All the Rabbanim are in unanimous support of this Atzeres and are urging all people to come out to the streets to pray and support our cause. We, the Torah valuing Jews of Israel, will march out today to show how important this issue is to us. Men, Women and older children will all join together in the streets at 4:00 pm to pray.
The other madrichot and I are taking the girls and we will walk to meet the rest of the women only a block away from the seminary. Nobody really knows what will be there, but I'm sure whatever the outcome, it will be a life-altering experience for all who will witness it.

With Hashem's help, (to continue to overcome my nature and write small posts) I will continue to update you on all the purim festivities as they happen.

[And maybe one day I'll even fill you in on all the time I left out. :)]

Tata for now!