Catching up

October has flown by, and November is upon us...and I have been very neglectful of this blog. So sorry about that, family and friends. Here is my attempt to catch up:

In mid-October we had the great good fortune of having Ruth and Steve come to visit Dan -- and we got to meet them, and Will and Chloe, for brunch on Sunday. What a treat! Rachel was so glad to see everyone, even if she did heartily embarrass Chloe by asking, "Is Will going to propose to you?" (I had been talking with Steve and was only vaguely aware of the conversation.) All of a sudden, I heard Ruth say very gently and calmly to Rachel, "Usually, people don't ask other people if someone is going to propose to them," and then I turned to face Chloe and the poor woman was blushing scarlet. "Rachel!" I exclaimed, and I felt so bad for Chloe. She seemed to take it with good humor, though, and so I took Rachel to the brunch buffet to find something to eat. Before I could stop her, she had gotten a dessert pudding, and I had to explain that she couldn't eat it (although she did manage to scarf down a small brownie instead). Unfortunately there wasn't much for her to eat that she wanted, but she did manage to get some breakfast in her before we had to leave for Hebrew school.

That night, I got an extraordinary call from Rachel's Hebrew-school teacher, Mrs. Siegel. (Drew and I had forgotten that it was meet-the-teacher-day.) She is a volunteer teacher with a heavy New York accent and said she just wanted to tell me that Rachel had done something amazing in class that day. They had been discussing the concept of God, and asking God for help. All the kids took turns saying what they wanted to ask God for help about, and Rachel said, "I want to ask for help saying, 'I'm sorry.'"

One of the other kids then said, apparently, "That's the hardest thing to say."

Mrs. Siegel said she was amazed at Rachel's ability to ask for help with the concept of saying she was sorry and added that it was incredibly mature of her to do so. We chatted a bit more -- she said that Rachel was very sweet, great to have in class, etc. I told a her a little about my background and how important it was for me that Rachel gets a good Jewish education and develops a love of the religion.

I love it when teachers call about the good stuff.