Why participate in a blog carnival?
- To get new readers for your blog, and find new ones to read.
- Links from bigger blogs help your search engine ratings.
- If you host, you can get even more traffic and links.
- Most important of all, you are supporting other bloggers and building a community.
All three Jewish blog carnivals have new editions out this week:
JPIX is up at Leora’s.
The 43rd edition of KCC (the Kosher Cooking Carnival) is up at the Real Shliach.
The Hot and Humid Edition of Haveil Havalim can be found at Simply Jews.
In other blog news, Ariella posted inexpensive ideas for trips in New York City in Kallah Magazine. Scroll down until you see the picture of the Botanical Gardens.
Prolific Commenter Abbi finally started her own blog, Confessions of a Startup Wife. I guess I will have to stop calling her Commenter Abbi.
Conversations in Klal has a wonderful series about the “good old days” of shidduch dating.
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I wanted to write about my daughter’s new bathing suit for Robin’s Summer Stock Sunday, but couldn’t decide which angle to take. So I wrote up all of them.
- I had fun shopping with my daughter, who needed clothes for a camping trip that is part of a counselors’ course. She also needed an outfit for my son’s bar mitzvah, and we agreed fairly easily. At least her shoes still fit her. [The comments on that old post are funny.]
- The bathing suit was a bargain (only the top is pictured). I went into several stores and asked if they had something for less than NIS 100 ($25). No one had for less than 200. Then one store-owner offered 90, and he saw it was a teen he said he would charge 70. I was so happy that I got one too, for NIS 100. The last time I bought a bathing suit was on our pilot trip to Israel. In 1990. I even remember how much I paid at a store in Tel Aviv, about NIS 69. I have a good memory for numbers.
- My daughter didn’t care what the bathing suit looked like, as she always wears a t-shirt to protect herself from the sun. She’s very sun-conscious, so I should probably get her some Vitamin D supplements.
- The packing list for her trip says that boys are not allowed to walk around in undershirts. I asked about the girls. My daughter said that they don’t need to write that because it’s a religious program.
- My daughter altered two new shirts because the necklines were too wide. I’m impressed that she does her own mending (and sometimes mine) but I probably shouldn’t be. I mean it’s something that few teenage girls these days know how to do, but it’s not such a complex skill. Don’t worry, I still think she is wonderful, and not because she does my mending.
- Since I’ve already moved off of the bathing suit topic, I’m sad that she will come back from the first leg of her trip after I have already left on mine. She’s happy that she’ll still have close to a week at home without the younger siblings around.
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Dear Readers,
I am excited to share my new blog, CookingManager.Com. Cooking Manager is about efficient cooking, a topic I’ve written about many times. It’s meant for people who are looking to cut cooking costs, save time, and learn how to cook more from scratch. I’m especially interested in helping readers who are learning how to manage a kitchen for the first time.
Cooking Manager.Com has a different format than A Mother in Israel. On the first page, you’ll find an excerpt of each post. Click on the title to get the whole article along with comments. You can also get full posts as they appear by subscribing by email or via an RSS Reader like Google Reader or Bloglines.
I’ve set up a weekly schedule for Cooking Manager:
- Sunday: Appliances and Equipment. Each week I’ll write about a kitchen appliance or utensil and how to use it efficiently.
- Money-Saving Monday: This is a broad topic including health, conservation, leftovers, and food safety and storage.
- Time-Saving Tuesday: Self-explanatory!
- Wednesday: Recipe day. Mimi at Israeli Kitchen graciously wrote the first guest post about Chickpeas Stewed in Tomato Sauce. Most recipes will be guest posts. You don’t have to be a food blogger to submit one.
- Friday: Weekly roundup. Today’s roundup, including posts on microwaves, cleanup, and eating less meat, can be found here.
If you find the blog useful I’d appreciate your help:
- Leave comments and give feedback by email. It is a work in progress and I expect the look will probably change several times over the next few months.
- Send suggestions for posts you would like to see. What do you struggle with?
- Subscribe by email or RSS reader, or bookmark it.
- Send it to friends. I’ve gotten good feedback from young couples.
- If you think your readers will enjoy it, link to it on your blog.
- If you like a post, please Tweet it or submit it to a social media site like StumbleUpon or Delicious.
- If you’re on Twitter, please follow me at my seond Twitter account, @cookingmanager.
I have a busy summer planned with a trip to my father and a Bar Mitzvah. My focus will be on keeping up the writing schedule (you know I love a challenge), but major changes and publicity will probably wait until after the summer. Posting here may be lighter for a time, but I don’t intend to disappear. One of my goals is to write faster, and I believe that readers of A Mother in Israel will ultimately benefit from my “expansion.”
Here are some posts from CookingManager.Com that I hope you will enjoy:
Do You Need a Second Freezer?
Individual Plates or Family Style? A Comparison of Serving Methods
My Mother’s Re-Recycled Meat Soup
Seven Ways to Use Up Leftover Bread
Don’t Bite the Bugs: Avoiding Insect Infestation in Food
Cooking Manager is intended for a general audience, although all recipes will be kosher. Posts about Jewish homemaking, like preparing for Shabbat on “short” Fridays will still appear over here. Suggestions and questions on this topic are always welcome.
Many, many thanks to the “preview” reviewers for giving positive feedback and constructive criticism.
Enjoy and have a Shabbat Shalom.
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Gilad Shalit
Update: The post below was originally written in June and the situation remains the same. On August 26 we are having another Twitter campaign to call attention to Gilad Shalit’s 23rd birthday, his fourth in captivity.
Three years ago today, 19-year-old soldier Gilad Shalit was abducted in a cross-border raid. Since then he is being held by Hamas in Gaza. No one knows his condition, because contrary to international law no neutral organization has been allowed to pay him a humanitarian visit. No official message has even been relayed to his family.
Paula of A Soldier’s Mother has declared today “Gilad Awareness Day.” Here are some of her ideas:
- If you are on Twitter – please post about Gilad and use the hashtags #Gilad – our goal is to get Gilad to the top of the Trend Tracker. This has been very effective with the Iranian protesters, gaining them tremendous international attention on all major media. Please, let’s do the same for Gilad – this Thursday! Tweet for Gilad! You can follow me at @ASoldiersMother or write to me and I can send you an avatar (picture to use on Twitter) that says FREE GILAD – we are asking people to change their avatar for Thursday (one day) for Gilad. What this means is that you can add #Gilad TO ALL YOUR TWEETS, no matter the subject.
- In the US, write, phone, or fax your representatives. Elsewhere in the world? Please do the same with your leaders.
- If you are on Facebook or LinkedIn, please email your contacts – Thursday must be Gilad Awareness Day!
- If you are a teacher – mention Gilad in school. Have your children write letters to government leader and to Gilad’s family.
- Write to newspapers and media; call in to radio shows and local news. Organize an event and ask for a speaker to come. If you have a lawyer in your community, ask him to come speak on international laws related to prisoners. If you have a Red Cross office – write to them and ask what they are doing to see Gilad.
Any other ideas? Please share with us.
For more information and to record a video in support of Gilad, see Gilad1095.
Image courtesy of Shalit family, via Wikipedia.
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I’ve written about my small daughter’s skill in locating missing objects. She also has a highly developed sense of smell. When we cuddle, she often lifts up my arm to sniff the deodorant. “I looove that smell!” she smiles.
Last winter my sister visited and brought along a sweater she no longer wears. A few days after she left I wore it for the first time. My daughter said, “You smell like Aunt N.”
I could probably hire her out to the police department’s missing persons bureau.
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