Happy 4th July

A quiet 4th of July, taking care of the horses at Harvest Hill Farm and grilling a few hamburgers and hotdogs in true 4th of July style. We were going to eat outside but everything was soaking wet from the thunderstorm we had earlier. Luckily Raquel had a great idea: she suggested that we pretend that inside was outside! So we lit some cintronella candles inside, she got Baby Moses, her doll's, high chair so he could join us and we had a delicious and cozy meal indoors.

Last night Raquel and I went to Temple Israel in Dover for the Family Service and potluck dinner. The gathereing was small but everyone was very nice. Most people came up to introduce themselves and thank me for coming. At one point I mentioned how important I feel it is to have Judaism in our children's lives, and how wonderful the preschool at Temple Israel in Portsmouth is for this. Because, I said, it just gets harder and harder to keep Judaism relevant once they start going to regular public school. Someone else said yes, especially here (meaning NH). Compared to Boston or NYC, this is true, but compared to Spain, it is like Israel here (so to speak) in how open you can be about being Jewish. I have an Israeli flag hanging from my rear-view mirror, and on my former car I had a pro-Israel bumper sticker, something my brother Jov couldn't believe when he saw it (we went to see him when he was on a business trip in NJ). He said I'd be in real trouble with a bumper sticker like that in Europe. It goes to show how easy it is to get used to a good thing.