Homemade onion bread
I wish I had a picture of this bread after it was baked - it was so delicious. But as we were in a hurry before Shabbat, I didn't have time to take a picture to share with you all. Perhaps next time, as I'm sure we'll be making this bread again. Adding fried spiced onions was my

A Veil of Roses
Another book I received as a gift not long ago is "A Veil of Roses", by Laura Fitzgerald. It tells the story of Tamila, a young Iranian woman who gets a visa to the USA and plans to stay there through the means of finding a traditional Iranian husband to marry her. There is a lot of talk in the book about the oppression of Iran vs. the liberty of America; as it appears, liberty is in walking around with one's hair uncovered, wearing a bikini at a mixed beach, and free mixing of men and women. I had to laugh at times while I read, because so many of the freedoms that are portrayed in

The Railway Children
Just a few days ago, I received a gift of a book from a very precious friend. The book was called "The Railway Children", by Edith Nesbit. It was written over a hundred years ago, but to me, it was new and I couldn't put it down until I finished reading. It's such a sweet, heart-warming story about a mother and her children and how they overcome the struggles of life. Several times I nearly cried while reading because it touched me so. I imagine this book will be just as good a hundred years from now as it was a hundred years ago. I plan to hang on to it, waiting for the time Shira can read English. I w

Seasons of life with no children at home
Two interesting questions were raised in response to this post, and to do them justice, I decided to write about them in a post of its own. Both are about two sides of the same coin: what is expected of a woman when there are no young children in her charge? Is tending to the hearth and home sufficient to keep a woman productively employed at every stage of her life? Here is the first question: "Do you think it is best for a father to support his unmarried daughter, if it is within his means to do so?"

When husbands lose their jobs
Read this article, which talks about what happens when a husband loses his job and finds himself supported by his wife. It won't come as a surprise to my regular readers to know I fully support the so-called "traditional" roles of man and wife. Tradition, of course, is the less important part in this; traditions might change, while God's plan for us never does, and He was the one to command Adam to work in the sweat of his brow, and Eve to bear children. So of course it's natural for the woman to take care of t