Make It A Habit 2, R2BCheerful, And Loose Ends.

Here are my Reasons 2B Cheerful, again hosted by Ojo's World.

1. Since starting my own Make It A Habit facebook group at the beginning of the month (after being expelled from the original one), we have 12 members, some more active than others, and some very real success stories.

My own first habit was to eat three modest meals a day with no snacking in between. After the intial four weeks (including the week in the other group) it had indeed become a habit and I lost 8lbs.

Last Friday I decided to rev up the health factor and my new habit is to eat an apple and a carrot (I am not a carrot person), and drink two large glasses of herbal tea every day. So far I've stuck to it except for Wednesday and Thursday this week when I ran out of apples - two days short of shopping day. 10lbs lost since October 23rd and feeling good.

Jerusalem Cokkbook Club cooks Ottolenghi

2. The first Jerusalem Cookbook Club dinner was a lot of fun and a great success. I'm very bad at going out in the evenings these days as it usually has to involve a babysitter. This time it was at my next door neighbour's I took DD along, armed with her tablet, and she watched videos for the duration. However, as I enjoyed the evening so much, next time I will invest in a babysitter and not have to be the first to leave at the end.

In other news, the College Summer Course that I tried to close in the middle of October would not stay dead. I was asked nicely if I could re-open it for select students who had almost finished. Tbh, it behooves me to comply as I'd rather let them finish a few tasks now than have them reappear next year and have to grade all thier papers again.

This last week, he's looking a bit stronger now.

Our baby lettuce plant is still alive and looking a bit more sturdy. As of yet no new growth though. I was so inpsired by the whole composting thing, and having set up my own composting station behind the kitchen taps, I continued to collect all our vegetable waste in the 'golden' glass jar.

The compost centre in the golden glass jar behind the taps.

Turns out the compost collection at school was a one off and hereonafter we have to find our own composting centres (as most of us in this neighbourhood live in apartments rather than houses). I know there is a composter in a community garden in our local park but it's kept locked. I was intending to find out the hours that you can take your compost along but I never got round to it. When the bag inside the golden glass was full I threw it out with the rest of the rubbish. *sigh* In my next life, I promise.

So there you have it, the end of a good week (apart from the composting). Shabbat Shalom Ya'll and have a great weekend, xxx

#ShabbatShalom : Summer Harvest

Whilst watering the kindergarten garden this week and picking a nice crop of cherry tomatoes and mint, my eye kept wandering to the kindergarten next door where the tomatoes were bigger and they had red cabbages growing. No one was tending their plot. As luck would have it, the teacher from that kindergarten arrived to do some prep for September. I told him he should pick some vegetables from his garden and he was surprised that anything had survived the heat. I offered to water it all for him as we were there anyway and he, of course, invited me to pick anything I could use. Win-win. This is what we harvested yesterday.

#ShabbatShalom : The Station

The original Jerusalem Train Station was part of a network of railways that ran from Cairo to Damascus. It was still in use when I arrived in Israel 25 years ago but the trains stopped running soon afterwards and a new station was built elsewhere. The old station has recently opened as an arts and crafts, foody, concert and entertainment venue. We went there this afternoon to taste the ice-cream and play with the constructastraws. It's a good half hour walk each way so we came home tired enough to justify a dvd before supper and bed.

The old platform and buildings are restaurants and a railway museum

The opposite direction

There's a craft market and farmers' market over the old tracks

Tables of creative toys are free for the children

Every so often a concert breaks out

Here begins the long walk home

#ShabbatShalom : Ice-Lolly Genius

Ok I didn't invent this but we had a serendipitous moment this week when DD discovered that she didn't like the (cheap) yogurts she had chosen. I put plastic spoons through the lids and froze them. For 2.54 nis (about 13p) a [lolly]pop, DD is eating yogurts and thinks they are the biggest treat out. For reference the only other ice-lollies that cost 2 1/2 shekels are the sugar, fruit flavouring, colouring, and water kind. These are not much better in the healthy department but I'll choose better yogurts next time - now that I know  how well it works. It's very hard to deny your child an ice-lolly when it's so hot out.

#ShabbatShalom : A Good Week

This week we had friends over for lunch after Kindergarten-camp twice, we went to the zoo, and at Moonlight Movies we stayed for the whole film for the first time. One of the girls had a birthday and they brought down a birthday cake to share with everyone. Candles, singing Happy Birthday, warm fuzzy neighbourly feelings all round. It was a personal first for me too. After 25 years in this country I watched my first ever whole film in Hebrew without subtitles - and could follow the plot. OK so How To Train Your Dragon doesn't have such a complicated plot but still.

Shabbat Shalom

#ShabbatShalom : Upcycling Op

This week we got a beautiful wedding invitation and instantly spotted an upcycling opportunity. We're looking forward to the wedding aswell.

What was a highlight of your week? One or two photos with one or two sentences and feel free to join the linky below.

#ShabbatShalom : Moonlight Movies

Our Sabbath (Shabbat) starts at sundown on Friday. As we go into our day of rest I'm going to post the highlights of our week. One or two photos, and/or a few sentences. Please feel free to join me via the linky below, there are no rules except to make it succinct. You don't have to be Jewish, you just have to be coming to the end of another week.

Neighbours in the building behind us organised Moonlight Movies for kids. It'll be every Thursday night of the school holidays. This was the first one but hopefully more children will come next week. They gave out bags of popcorn and everything. And at the end everybody clapped.