In which she returns to her mommyblogger roots

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There are times when I wax philosophical, or fumble with the minutiae of Israeli culture, or push the boundaries of my writing, or spend hours looking for that perfect shot. And then of course there's stuff like this, or this. Or this. Or even this. That one still haunts my dreams.
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This isn't one of those times.

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Yes, this is the obligatory "back to school" post.

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It could have been a photography post, but not with these as the best of the first day of school lot -

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Yes, his eyes were closed or nearly close in every single picture.

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Or this one. At least she's happy, but she's much too busy to even look at me, let alone head for a less busy background. Oh, and the hair? A joint effort. My job is ponytails. Maya does the clips. So many clips. Oh so many clips. Dozens. All at once. Either her hair is down loose or else this. It's all about extremes. No middle ground with this kid.

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Or then there was this attempt to get the two of them together. Herding cats I tell you.

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As for the nitty gritty...

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Itai's day went well. The only surprise there, albeit a major one, was a last minute teacher switch from the same teacher he had last year (who we were THRILLED with) to a complete unknown, but I have heard good things about her and Itai came home happy. (Why wouldn't he, he'd been complaining for months that the previous teacher gave too much homework. He thinks he's on easy street now. I suspect he's in for a fairly rude awakening in a few short days.)

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Maya was our real star today. She started kindergarten (generally freestanding here in Israel, not part of the elementary school) in a small special education "language" kindergarten) as well as joined her brother in his afternoon program. Over the summer the kindergarten was moved from the brand new facility I'd originally blogged about in the link above to an older facility, but the building they're in is still more than enough for the eleven (11! Instead of 35!) children in the class and the teacher and the aide seem both nice and competent. Maya took a while to acclimate this morning, and was a bit unsettled when it was time for the children to eat breakfast (food can be a stressful issue for her) but she seemed to settle in well after that. They only went for two hours today and she was beaming by the time I picked her up, and is enthusiastic about returning tomorrow. As I've gotten to know the staff and the other children and families I've become more and more confident that we made the correct decision to place her in this program, that it is exactly what she needs to make a huge leap forward over the next 1-2 years. When the school day is finished at 1:30 she will be joining Itai at a private afternoon program. She knows several of his friends there as well, and has been happily playing in their playground and glomming treats off the staff for a year now, so that transition went a bit more quickly (though there too she didn't really eat, but hopefully that will settle itself soon). The staff there told me she was a bit reserved, but the fact that she was talking with the director right away when I brought her over (a first day treat, she'll normally take a van) showed me that she was feeling pretty comfortable. Maya herself told me that she had a "great" day and had "lots of fun" and can't wait to go back tomorrow. We're optimistic that this combination of specially-geared attention in the mornings and normal day to day kid stuff in the afternoons will be a good combination for her - giving her the extra boost that she needs without letting her fall further behind her same-age peers by becoming too insular in the special ed world. This is very important to us because the goal (of both us as her parents and of the professionals who understand such things) is to have her ready to enter a regular classroom by first-grade, two years from now. (Many children in Israel with fall birthdays are encouraged to stay in kindergarten for two years, with Maya's other issues it's practically a given.)

All in all we're off to a pretty good start. It was a long, stressful road to get here, but now that we're finally here the sun is out and things are looking good.

Life in the shadows - sometimes it's what you don't see

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"Life in the Shadows"

Sometimes what's most striking is what you don't see.

The absense of light creates its own reality.

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I've been feeling pulled in quite a few directions lately, creatively speaking, and it's painfully obvious in my scattered unfocused umm, eclectic, yes, let's go with that, my eclectic recent blog content. If you visited one day you might be utterly certain that this was a photography blog, on another day just as certain that it was a straightforward momblog, or perhaps it's a writing blog, or maybe a "mom to a special needs child" blog, or is it an expat blog, and hey, wait a minute, didn't I see a few recipes in here as well, maybe it's a food blog (no, it's not. At least not most of the time. Sorry.)
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Because this blog IS, in fact, above all else a reflection of my life, it turns out that that's what you get. A hodge-podge. A mish-mash. A big gigantic mess. An assortment. A variety. A melange. A... (Ok, ok, I'll shut up now with the images. No need to run from the room screaming.)
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It accompanies me on my path. Sometimes it follows, like when I talk about my life here in Israel or about my challenges and triumphs in parenting two very different but utterly wonderful kids. Other times it walks alongside, for example when I share a recipe for chicken in green curry sauce or no-knead-beer-bread. And there are times when it actually leads me, like when I actively search for subject matter for writing prompts or photography projects.
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I don't always, or even often, know what is hanging out there in the shadows of my mind, waiting to be set free. What wanted to be said yesterday may not want to be said tomorrow. Sometimes I post of my challenges with Maya (which I might mention are fewer at the moment if I weren't so afraid of tempting the fates, so I won't. Nope, even this faint whisper was too much. The Fates were tempted and everything went to hell. 'Nuff said.) so that I can wrap myself in this larger community of "parents who understand" while other times it feels too raw, too exposed. Sometimes it's the muses who need to be heard, to tell the mother to go put her feet up for a bit and curl up with a good book and a cute umbrella drink while they take over the shop for a while. The only problem there is that the writing muse and the photography muse don't always play nicely together, with each one feeling like they should have the starring role, the queen of the blog, so to speak. We've been learning to share our toys nicely, some days more successfully than others, so you may start seeing more of their combined efforts in the days to come. On the other hand, you may not.
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You'll just have to come by each day and see for yourselves who won that morning's catfight.
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The photo Plant in Shadow has been removed from this post as it has been accepted for publication elsewhere.

These photos, and the words which they then called into being, are my response to the Matinee Muse prompt "life in the shadows". I love the fact that this new site (which grew out of the former Writers Island in more ways than one, as it's the creation of Writers Island's Rob's own son) has launched itself as a "creativity" prompt, encouraging submissions in a variety of media. Some days it's the words that come almost of their own volition, tripping over each other in their hurry to be heard, while other days it's the images which cry out to be seen. And sometimes, on very lucky days, it's both.

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