PCB & Destin: Lots of surprise new friends, hot pizza, and other good things!!!

I want to share some wonderful things happen on our second and third Shabbats!  We are so thankful for the blessings of friendship and community we have unexpectedly experienced (in larger number than we expected.)

(I realize Thanksgiving also just passed; it was pretty low-key for us.  We had some on-theme foods and reviewed what the kids learned in school about it.  We were really busy working on our house hunting and surviving the week off of school!  We really like to do the whole "Thanksgiving" mentality thing every day, it's our way of life, so in our current situation without any family around, it was just a bit more of that than usual.)

So, about all those good surprises... a week ago on Friday, we left by car right before candle lighting to deliver a challa to my new friend Rena.  (She used to be a nurse and had helped me figure out what to do with a deep cut on my thumb.  Oops.  Thankfully it has healed extremely well and fast!)  A few minutes later, on our way back into the parking lot of our neighborhood, we drove past a guy unloading his vehicle.  Adira calls out from the back seat, "Is that a Jewish person?"  (He had some of the visible signs in his clothing- tzitzit, kippa, also a beard.)

We slow down and roll down the window and say "Good Erev Shabbos!  What brings you to our street?"  This is not the place we expected to meet random Jews!  It's the Florida panhandle!  (Or Floribama, if you will, really more like southern Alabama!)  You don't just randomly find more observant Jews in your subdivision.

This young guy is a public adjuster who came to the area with his firm from Miami for the potential goldmine for their line of work.  They help people with their insurance claims following the storm (Hurricane Michael.)  His name was Mendy, and his wife Batya and their three kids (ages three and under!!!) just had joined him for what was expected to be about six months of work in this area.

They were quickly unloading their car before sunset (imagine the stress of all they were doing)- and we were quickly returning from a chessed (act of kindness,) and if either of us had not been in that situation- one challenging, the other voluntary, we would not have discovered each other!

The boon for us was that we got to have the Levy's over for Shabbat dinner, enjoying connecting with them and having some Shabbos excitement, and become new friends with each other!  On Saturday afternoon I managed to "steal" Batya away for a walk on the beach.  (I wanted to show her how close we were and she didn't realize yet from her rushed arrival.)  It was so nice to get to know her and become friends.  She is one of ten children raised in a Lubavitch home in Israel.  Her parents are shluchim and she and Mendy had done some very interesting things in their first few years of marriage, such as teaching in a school for troubled youth in Baja, Mexico!

The rest of Shabbat also had some wonderful things.  We were invited (while at shul) to join a small group for lunch at someone's house.  It was a delicious Israeli dairy style meal and we felt so nicely welcomed.  There we finally got to meet the other observant family (Alon and Odelia and their three sons and toddler daughter.)  Nesi was a sure bet to go play at their house, and Adira was eventually persuaded to as well.  When I got there to pick them up they were having a grand time and were SO glad they had gone to play with the kids.  Robert and I were thrilled that they had such a great time and had found nearby "shabbat friends."  The parents are super nice as well- couldn't be sweeter.  So Thank G-d we have made some more friends, and it really makes a difference!

Did I mention we've been speaking Hebrew a lot with the Israelis?  Again, who would have thought that we'd have to come here to brush up on our Ivrit.  What a great opportunity.  And I can't help but feel it's ironic that it was "us" who moved to this remote Jewish community, mostly Israelis, because most of my peers don't speak Hebrew and would not have been able to integrate as well.

Thank you Hashem for planting these nice families so close to us, one unexpectedly and the other known.  It really reinforced that we must be here in PCB for a reason- or maybe a lot of good reasons!

yes these are current pictures, yes, mid-november!!!!

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Our third Shabbat we returned to Destin to the Tennenboim family.  Their shul, Chabad of the Emerald Coast, has a small Shabbat following (but a very large holiday outreach for those times of year.)  They have four daughters and a son, all under age 12.  (We recently attended the oldest girl's bat mitzvah party, too!!  Who would have thought that, again, here in Floribama??)  They are such a sweet family, and it's fun to be around them.  They speak Hebrew between the parents, and Yiddish with the kids!  The kids also have great English.

We got a better place to stay (no more Days Inn by "Westin."  Westin here stood for nothing!) and were invited for dinner to the home of some congregants there- perhaps the only other shomer Shabbat people in Destin- who used to live in St. Louis.  It was such an enjoyable time.  The next day we enjoyed going to shul (there was a minyan!!) and a nice kiddush lunch afterwards for some birthdays.  Robert and I put David down for a nap while Adira and Nesya went home with their friends and played all afternoon.  When I came to join them an hour later, they were having a great time.  Rochel and I sat on a bench swing in the nice November air and talked for quite a while.  The whole group ended up making a very nice theatrical production for the parents to watch with real stage lighting in their backyard after Shabbat when Robert came to pick us up.  It was adorable, funny, and had a nice moral to the story about beauty being on the inside (and even if you have a broken nose, try to remember that!)

The next day our kids joined the 2x/month Sunday school and had a great time.  They reviewed the story of Chanukah in depth- apparently Rochel is a great storyteller because they knew all the heroes of the story when we drove home, and Nesya was super excited about reading Hebrew.  They "reenacted" the hunt through the wrecked Temple for the one pure bottle of oil to light the menorah with- what a fun idea.  So that was a great way to spend the morning!  We will be returning to Destin for some Chanukah events, G-d willing.  They do a fun kids event at Home Depot and a big public menorah lighting on the Harbor.

During Sunday School I went to a huge outlet mall and went SHOPPING!  Bought Robert some good birthday and Chanukah presents and a few gifts for others too.  Not for myself this time!  And today I just ordered a train set for David for his second birthday- please, Amazon Prime, deliver it within two days!!!  Can't wait to give it to our birthday baby!!!

Sunday AM in Destin- Ready for the day- a huge jug of coffee and some very interesting Gemara Sukka...this is the adult rated mesechta!!

The precious performers!

This little bubby got a haircut!!!  He is scared to sit on the chair by himself and it takes at least two family members to keep him there (on Daddy's lap) until he is looking neat again.

meeting a sweet family in the community with a kindergarten aged daughter!  Nesi and Yali hit it off and they also have a son Yochai who is David's age!

Anyone who visits us will be taken to this incredible playground!

On our way home from the beach- even when it's not too hot we can have a lot of fun there

helping us out...

Found this, dug the day before most likely!

The silly ones in the family

David and Batya's son having a grand time.  Don't worry, LOTS of sunblock was applied (even in Nov.!)

The stylish and beautiful Adira

The Bat mitzvah party featured "make your own challahs"

In the shul during the party- it was all women except for her father ;)

sleepyhead

Sunday afternoon we had one more surprise- delicious kosher pizza cooked in an awesome pizza-oven-like grill (taboun?) at the birthday party of some twin girls in the PCB community!!  NEVER thought I'd be eating hot gourmet pizza at anyone's house down here!  What a fun treat.  The party was lovely and it was really nice to meet more of the community.  Not large, but not tiny either, when you think about it.

We survived the week off of school, we had a great weekend, and now it's one week til Chanukah.  We will have a very happy weekend, G-d willing, going to St. Louis for our nephew's bar mitzvah.  Can't wait!!!!

Hope everyone reading this is doing well.  Sending love from Floribama!

Our first week in Panama City Beach!

We're here!  On our first afternoon in Florida, I registered the kids at Beach Elementary.  (You know you're doing at least something right when the school is named "Beach.")  I also went to pick up our mail that had been held for a month in Panama City.  If you've ever been around for a natural disaster recovery, you know that mail back up is a real issue!  Thousands of people had their mail rerouted to pic-up points at local post offices because their mail couldn't be delivered.  I was excited to find some packages I ordered before the evacuation (like some awesome confetti-speckled recycled material- Zak! brand- kitchen goods,) some housewarming cards, and most special, a photo album made by friends and family in St. Louis and elsewhere!!  That album was a real treasure for us to enjoy during our first Shabbos in PCB- where we as of yet, knew no one!

Shabbat went really well.  We had brought some carry out foods from Atlanta (bye Atlanta!! we'll miss you!!) and thank G-d had enough time to move in and get set up before Shabbat.  Robert and the girls walked to Friday night services at the shul, about .7 miles from our rented townhouse.  The locals here (mostly Sephardi/Moroccan Israelis) were very welcoming.  With short winter days, Shabbat passed with playtime, meals, and exploring on foot around the neighborhood.

Our townhouse is in a gated "casual" resort community very close to the beach.  PERFECT location!!  We couldn't wait to walk down to the water on Saturday.  And what do you know, because everyone (i.e. David) is waking up so blessedly early, like 5-6am, we had some quiet morning time to do that.  It was so peaceful and beautiful!  (We let Robert snooze while we went- just the nice kinda mama I am ;) )  The kids had a blast just digging around with toes and fingers in the sand, and I can't wait to take them often.

Sunday and Monday (no school yet-Vet's Day) we had an extra weekend day.  We got everyone some new toys at Target (great stop-gap measure!) and went to a great trampoline park, see pics below.  We also got to have a really nice meet-up with our new friend Rena and her 1 year old daughter.  Rena and I have been chatting since we found out we were moving and I got her number from the Chabad folks.  She is super nice and we knew we had a lot in common.  We hit it off really well and had fun visiting them in their panoramic-water-view condo and then playing on the beach.  I am so grateful that I've already found a friend!  She used to be an ER nurse, and was able to help me later in the week with a bad cut on my finger!  Helpful.

Tuesday the girls started school and that went pretty smoothly.  Nesi was anxious at first but ended up doing great and coming home with not one, not two, but three new best friends.  (You have to appreciate her flexible definition of the term!)  We were thrilled that she merged so well with the class.  Her teacher seems very good and is highly regarded.  I got to sit in for a little bit and observe.  Adira also did great, making new friends and jumping right in to all the subjects.  I thought her teacher looked really organized with a warm personality.  We're so proud of them.  They also rode the school bus home!!! Wheeee, what excitement that was for David!  He is obsessed with school buses (and city buses, trains, cars, trucks, and especially construction vehicles.)

We are having a newly large share of challenges with the girls at home, so send your positive thoughts our way on that one!  It's just been unexpectedly hard on their relationship with each other to go through all this.  We're trying our hardest to help them resolve conflict and I'm grateful Robert has been able to be really involved in that.  We've thought in great detail about how to make successful schedules for mornings and afternoons on school days, and still have to figure out more of a rhythm for weekends.  We need to reinstate reading time for Adira, independent play time for Nesya, and try to use all the available spaces in our smaller than usual house.

Here's some pics of that first week!

David is speaking so well now!!! it's awesome to hear him develop

Congrats to my sister Elly on her engagement to Evan!!!!!

adira's class gave her the warmest goodbye with posters and cards and a little party!!

see you soon, dear friends!!

at the florida welcome center, where they also serve orange juice :)

Beach Elementary day 1!

Danny the Israeli's beach store, Monkey Shack!

beautiful beach so nearby!

starting the Jewish calendar project with Daddy.  Part of our idea for them about staying connected is being aware of the Jewish calendar from a couple minutes a day attention to it at home.

we've been having great Jewish learning!

this happy boy at Just Jump!

What's going on at Tyndall...not much improvement, but they are working hard on it!

ball fields turned into rubbish piles

THIS IS THE HOUSE WE ALMOST MOVED INTO!  View from front door into living room.

back of house view of collapsed living room- I'm very glad our stuff was not in there!!

This was the marina before- when we visited just a day or two before the oncoming hurricane was announced!

 The beautiful marina decks

The beautiful marina reduced to NOTHING

tree wasteland

you need a lot of spiritual fitness around here right?

the tents where repair workers are staying- members of the AF- looks like overseas deployed conditions

this poor plane was on display and got flipped over.  what a sight.

next blog- our amazing second Shabbos in PCB!

ATL Botanical Garden: wild vs. cultivated beauty

This morning I got to experience being in one of my true happiest places!! A garden!! A very large and ornate one at that.  It made me ponder the difference between appreciating "wild" beauty and appreciating cultivated beauty (forest vs. garden.)  Naturally, I concluded that both are worthy of our admiration because one is G-d's raw work, and the other is G-d's children tending G-d's beautiful planet and learning to work with nature to enhance the arrangement of its many beautiful elements.

A huge thank you to my dear friend Adi Feen for the power-walking tour through the garden.  She is a docent there and very knowledgeable!  It was the perfect last morning activity to power me up for the next part of the "Down By The Bay" journey.

I also need to give an additional shout-out to Robert for taking David almost every morning on the long carpool drop-offs for Adira and Nesya.  It allowed me time to go on outings like this which helped me reduce stress in this crazy time!  He gave me hours a day almost every single day and it was much appreciated!!!

@ Atlanta Botanical Garden

The bog- billowy, fluffy grasses and pitcher plants, one of several carnivorous plants native to the SE USA!  Venus Flytraps also present but not pictured.

Canopy walk- I don't think I'd ever been so high up among trees!

Earth Goddess- covered with flowers in warmer seasons!!

Near the edible garden

dwarf POMEGRANATE!

pink AERIAL ROOTS from the cissus tree in the rainforest!! I was staggeringly amazed walking around this tree!  Could not get enough of it.  

I couldn't look long enough at these awesome trees around it too.

 the chives in this garden were soooo yummy.  seriously.

 Lotus hand, earth goddess!