Water Play

I've been on the fence about giving Freida swimming lessons this Summer or waiting until next year. I feel like kids in LA really need to be swim safe in general, and I also think she'd have a crazy fun Summer if she'd learn how to swim. But at the same time, I know she's fearful of water and is happy as a clam to hang out at the seas edge jumping waves, or in a pair of floaties at the pool. I hear so many moms talking about what a waste of time it is to start kids lessons when they just aren't ready, and I really don't think she is. I think if she were motivated a bit more by kids in her bunk knowing how to swim, or if she ever asked about learning how to swim - I'd sign her right up. In any case, while googling around a bit for some kids swim schools in LA, I happened upon there images by Alix Martinez, and they totally made me swoon (and want to give her lessons!). How awesome is this water photography?? If I had boys, I would want a huge print on that taxi photo in their playroom. Just sayin'. Check out the rest of them on his website. And I'm curious to hear, at what age did you start your kids in swimming lessons?

Maid Easier

I have a friend here in LA who actually went to college. And graduated. With a Masters. She speaks a really good Spanish, and many of us had been hitting her up endlessly as our English - Spanish translator. I for one have a really difficult time conversing with my cleaning help. It's a bit shameful, really. Not speaking Spanish in LA is really not cool, and I definitely want to make sure my kids grow up with enough of a Spanish grasp. It's just much simpler to live here and be able to communicate with everyone easily. Our automated phone services now say "for English press 1"!! Anyways, my friend was getting tired of answering the many texts (How do I say 'wash the windows'/'put in the casserole'/'throw out old food from fridge'?) and had an impromptu little epiphany to create Spanish/English magnets specifically geared toward house help!

Enter Maid Easier. The most helpful $10 you will spend this year. I used to wait for my cleaning girl to come in the morning just so that I could be there to explain to her what I needed done that day. These little magnets have completely saved my sanity! I put my every week basic tasks up on the fridge, and rummage through the little tin container to put up the other tasks I want her to do that day, before I hightail out the door Thursday morning. It's been insanely easy! And my home has never been cleaner. (I've definitely come a long way since my very first cleaning lady!) You can buy Maid Easier magnets on Amazon, and start stressing less about your cleaning lingo.

Side note: the tin itself is not a magnet. I just found the easiest place to keep it was right there on the fridge, so I slapped a little square of adhesive magnet paper to the back of it, and voila.

Pretzel Challah

I've had this blog post bookmarked to try for months, seems like the perfect time to attempt this perilous pretzel challah recipe with Pesach fast approaching. Join me in this baking breaking-bad-style?

pretzel challah

makes six small loaves

ingredients

one batch of this challah dough (do add the cardamom. stop after step 6 and meet back here.)

1/4 c food grade lye

5 c water

course sea salt, for sprinkling

also: rubber or latex gloves and protective eye wear!

clues

1. once you have made your dough and it is fully risen, divide dough into 6 equal parts. divide each of those into 3 parts, roll them out into 1-inch ropes, and braid them together. place on floured baking sheets and freeze for 20-30 minutes, or refrigerate for an hour.

2.  as the loaves chill, put on your gloves and eye wear, and prepare the lye bath. in a casserole dish, combine the 5 cups of water and the 1/4 cup of lye. add the lye slowly so that it doesn't splash.

3. preheat oven to 400.

4. prepare two baking sheets with greased parchment paper. using two spatulas or your gloved hands, carefully dip each loaf into the bath, top side down, giving the top side 10-15 seconds before placing it onto a baking sheet. sprinkle with salt. bake for 15-20 minutes, until loaves are golden brown and cooked through.

enjoy with mustard and a beer or six!

(Check out My Name is Yeh for more of the chemistry kitchen how-to!)

Wes Anderson

And I thought I was particular... Apparently Wes Anderson has a thing for perfect symmetry.

I'm not generally a big movie goer, as I'm notorious for falling asleep at about 78 minutes in. (I figure it's a smidge of ADD - my attention span seems to cap off at a little over an hour - and so I've been sticking with small screen series that never disappoint and are over before I am).  But there are always those films that I get hooked on and totally look forward to seeing on the silver screen. And as you already know, I have a soft spot for Wes Anderson  and his incandescent indies. Can't believe I still haven't gone to see the Grand Budapest Hotel yet!! I'm on the fence about getting a sitter and going at night (risking being called back home by my babysitter that the girl/s are awake and crying for me mid-film), or carving out some time during the daylight hours to get in my Anderson flick fix. Until then, I'll continue enjoying the soundtrack (especially Daylight Express to Lutz, and Traditional Arangement: Moonshine).

Anyways! I happened upon this Supercut of Centered Shots and I just can't get over it. There's always something so magical and mythical about his visual aesthetics, but I honestly never noticed this! I thought it was always more about the colors... Check this out:

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/89302848]

P.S. I could still swoon for this Moonrise Kingdom nursery.

Goldieblox

Recently, I had a little triumph involving tools*, and it finally got me to sit down and post about Goldieblox. A draft of this post had been sitting in my outbox since Chanukah (when my wildly trendy sister Rivkee gifted 5-year-old Freida with Goldieblox and the Spinning Machine), and while we've been enjoying fiddling with the thing, mastering the many prototypes in the users manual, and even coming up with some of our own creations, I haven't yet spread the good word about this goody for girls here.

Goldieblox - dubbed 'toys for future innovators'- has been blowing my mind. We all know the ins and outs and young women in the business world in general (and as #banbossy goes to show, it's still a serious issue), but this toy just took things to a whole new level. Forget pushing education and college courses, and try cultivating the innate love for puzzles that is in every child. Toys like these not only encourage children to think outside the box (much like legos do), but they inspire young minds to problem solve and work through things on their own - resulting not only in their own solutions, but in their own creations.

Freida found it a bit difficult at first, but once she got the hang of the concept she fully took off, and has been happily messing around with it since. Once they understand the basic concept and know the logistics of the different pieces, it's a refreshingly fantastic toy for kids to play with on their own. On the weeks that I have the girls with me for Shabbos, I break this out when I want to keep Freida occupied while I put Hudi down for a nap and even sneak in some "me" time with an iced Irish coffee and some pages of the latest Vogue. The fun with this toy is never fleeting, and it's a great gift to consider for girls ages 4-8.

Here is their original commercial (feat. the Beastie Boy music they were allegedly sued for, but it's still so stinkin' cute!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvEsVFbyoL8

And here's their latest commercial from this years Super Bowl:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVCC83cDch0

How cute, right? This totally makes me nostalgic for that 90's catchphrase: #girlpower

*I had been living in this apartment for a whole bunch of weeks with a broken play kitchen. The fridge had some loose screws and 2 cabinet doors had fallen off. I stashed them behind the kitchen, and figured I'd get someone to come fix it. I didn't. It wasn't exactly an urgent priority, and so it sat idly somewhere on my to-do list. Until one day recently - I just got fed up with looking at a broken piece of furniture in the girls room - I just grabbed a lonesome screwdriver that had been sitting amongst a slew of pens and pencils at my desk, and fixed it all up like new. It was so easy! And I felt so dumb! I couldn't get over how ridiculous it was that since I was always used to someone doing the handywork for me, I figured I shouldn't even try. It made me think about how many other things I leave waiting on the back burner because I think I don't know how or am not able to do them as well as somebody else... And so this lil' tool triumph has taught me to (at the very least) give things a try. 

Yes. She's cooking Foofa. And frying Plex. I know, perplexing.