Chayeh Sarah- Girl Power

In Parashat Chayeh Sarah we mourn and eulogize the first mother of the Jewish nation.
Here is video, sharing a unique perspective on the most influential Jewish woman.

In addition to this memory, the girls and I looked at old blogs from this week's parasha.

Five years ago we made a well.  The older girls remembered this well [pun intended] and enjoyed retelling the story of Rivkah at the well.

Then we looked at how we decorated candlesticks four years ago.  They remembered the project well but only had a vague recollection of the passuk and Rashi we highlighted.

First we caught the younger ones up on the story of finding a wife for Yitzchak.  The girls brainstormed what Eliezer should look for and Ruti wrote it down.

For anyone who is not adept in Kindergarten writing, it says 'Jewish, tznua [modest], single, nice'. I thought this list was fantastic because the Torah explains how Rivkah was all of these.  Cohava thought it was funny to compare it to my husband wish list (Tall, broad, redhead, non-American English speaker, religious, zionist, intelligent, funny...).

Then I circled back to the older girls and we reviewed the text we learned in the candlesticks blog.

"Now we make the well!" announced Ruti. It wasn't my plan, but sure.

It took some time to figure out the mechanics of using a well, but they soon devised a method of teamwork.

For those who did participate.

"Ema, where are the glass candlesticks from Ikea?" asked Cohava.  She was initially disappointed that there were none but perked up when I said 'make dough for clay'.

Recipe:
2 cup flour
1 cup cornstarch
1 cup flour
2 T oil
1 (and a little more) cup water.

 mix

slowly add water

 knead

 roll. cut with cookie cutter.

 place each shape on an upside down mini-cupcake sheet.

 bake @ 250 F for 1 hour.

 Pop out, turn upside down (right side up) and back some more.

 Paint. We used acrylic.

I plan to spray shellac them later.

We will put tealights in them, make a beracha, and our Shabbat candles will fill our home with holiness like Sarah and Rivkah's Shabbat candles. Girl Power!

Shabbat Shalom!