The Nexus of the Sun, the Moon, and Mother

© KJ Hannah Greenberg, 2018

The Nexus of the Sun, the Moon, and Mother
with Rivka Gross.
Seshell Books, USA.
Jan, 2020. Order Here

It is not so much that I don’t feed my offspring properly, dress them appropriately, or otherwise keep them off of the streets. I even entertain them with my efforts to not look frumpy and to speak in local discourse.

Nonetheless, they protest, saying that grown women ought to wear colors other than black or navy and that it would suit them if I didn’t talk garbled Hebrew in front of their friends, specifically, or in front of anyone they might know them, in general. They insist, as well, that my behavior evidences my failure to grasp the rudiments of parenting. Those kids gripe, too, that they needed a raise in allowance, about twenty months ago.

In response, I smile and nod. They can blather all they want; I’ve earned every bit of my maternal status. Whereas I used to greet the sun regularly when they were small, these days, I meet that celestial body as the end of my work hours. What’s more, I am charmed, not alarmed, by my sons and daughters’ adolescent goings-on.

So what if a sister’s friend’s dog has eaten someone’s homework? So what if a brother’s undies turned pink because someone else mixed up the laundry? So what if the boys and the girls tower over their father and me? So what if they bake a kind of chocolate chip cookie that leaves my version at the starting gate?

In exchange for merely observing their sibling feuds, their “creatively” decorated rooms, and their unusual approaches to emptying the dishwasher and to acquiring pets, my offspring offer me adrenal “delights.” Turbulence is the norm in a home full of teenagers. Accordingly, it is to their merit that Mom’s on a remarkable, creative journey!

Preface
Introduction: Boys' Dolls, Matchmaking, and Kitten's Play: A Slice of Strife
I. Family Nature
1.1 Martial Family Arts: Computers, Reptile Research and Shooting the Moon
1.2 Softness
1.3 Mt. Laundry
1.4 A Singular Definition
1.5 Some Bits, Sometimes, Well Parenting
1.6 The Lawyer
1.7 Missing my Girls
1.8 Celebrating my Boys
1.9 Sons, Daughters and Sundry Other Celestial Bodies
1.10 Parenting While Acculturating
1.11 More Parenting While Acculturating
1.12 In Pursuit of Fantastic Contraptions and Other Parenting Foibles
1.13 Multiple Parental Perspectives
1.14 Cave of the Machpelah: Mindful Deviance
1.15 Honoring Kids' Needs (with Rebecca Gross)
1.16 A Mother's Maturity

II. Family Care and Feeding
2.1 A Cup of Tea
2.2 No More Brown Wrappers
2.3 Packaging and Brown Rice
2.4 Chew on this: Chocolate
2.5 Summertime Noshing (with Rebecca Gross)
2.6 A Spoon Full of Vinegar is the Medicine that Goes Down
2.7 Spelt Bread Attitude
2.8 Sniffle, Snuff, Snort
2.9 Urgent Care
2.10 Of Broken Noses
2.11 Herbs, Teens, and Stuff
2.12 Sometimes, Extra Fermentation
2.13 An Academically Stimulating Home
2.14 Communication Constraints: Ten Ideas
2.15 The Jewish Mama and the Woodland Survival Guide
2.16 Growing Pains

III. Family Adventures
3.1 Summer Days
3.2 My Getaway: My Family's View
3.3 My Family's Getaway: A Caricature
3.4 Six Pillows and a Mommy
3.5 Kids on Vacation
3.6 Ignoring Sibling Skirmishes
3.7 Skirting Issues
3.8 Mama Wombats
3.9 Making Waters
3.10 Yesterday's Amusement Parks
3.11 Kindergarten Kavod
3.12 This Week's Version of Sea and Land
3.13 Entertainment Israeli-Style
3.14 Israeli Bathrooms, Security Guards and Dumpster Cats
3.15 What Really Happened
3.16 All Manners of Sunshine

Conclusion: Parenting Teens and Beyond
Afterword
Acknowledgements
Credits
About the Authors