Take Twelve-ish May 2012

Shortly after receiving the email from Angie Lucas (!) about being on the Take Twelve team, I ran to the calendar to see in which months the 12th fell on Saturday. Because, see, Saturday is the Sabbath, heretofore referred to as shabbat (Hebrew) or shabbos (Yiddish). And for the shabbos observant, we don't cook, we don't use electricity, and we certainly don't use our cameras. At least not before sunset. (We do cook before shabbos, and leave lights on timers.)

So even back in January, I was thinking about May 12th, and how I would make it work. I knew pretty quickly that I wanted to capture as much as I could about shabbat, because it is a pretty defining quality of our family life. I would just have to do it right before or after the twelfth of the month. And that is what I did. I took most of my pictures on Friday,  two on Sunday morning, and one was actually on Saturday night, after shabbat was over.

Max was away at friends for Shabbos, so I had to snap a quick pic of him before he left for school.

No matter how successful I have been with housework all week, my apartment must be clean for shabbos. It's just the way it is. This Friday that meant I had a lot of catching up to do. This is what the kitchen table looked when I left to work, and pretty much every surface of my home was comparable to this one. Sigh. the flowers are pretty, though.

Since I work at a Jewish preschool ( in a synagogue, no less), we have some shabbat traditions in school on Friday. One of which is that all the classes join together in the sanctuary to sing shabbat songs. And sometimes, one class gets up to lead a song for the other classes:

Dave cooking for Shabbos.

Getting the shabbat candles ready. ( Candles are lit at the beginning of shabbat.)

It took several hours, but I did get this place cleaned up, with just shabbos necessities on the table.

Sam, all clean and ready for shabbos, and having a great hair day. It's amazing what using a brush will do.

Me, all clean, and finally ready too. Please admire my bright, pink nail polish. In that moment I was feeling kind of sad that nobody ever takes my picture but me. 

Since we don't watch TV, or use the computer, or travel on shabbos, we get lots of reading done. This is Dave's pile of comic books for this week. He actually  arranges in them in order of how interested he is in each book. The least interesting he puts on top, and then works his way down to most interesting. That way he always has something to look forward to.

This was the first time in several months that I did not have a book from the Game of Thrones series to read.  So, I finally read The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and then Wonderstruck, both by Brian Selznick. I really loved Wonderstruck; the structure of it was truly remarkable, the pictures were beautiful, the story original, and it just seemed to incorporate so many things I love. And then, to top it off, on the last page of  the book, I found this dedication. Perfect.

And last, but not least, on Sunday I took two pictures of the two synagogues that we pray at. There is a long story about why there are two, but that will be a story for another day.

And there are my 12 photos about the 12th of the month, just not actually taken on the 12th.

I am off to check out everyone's pictures at Ella's Take Twelve Flickr Group, and at the links provided here. And this month, two winners will receive a print copy of the new book, Everyday Storyteller.