While my daughter moves along with painting glassware, I made my move in painting inspirational words and phrases on stones.
Two sides to one coin, as it were, but slightly different concepts Bitachon is the Hebrew word for a deep trust in the creator and Emmuna is translated more as faith.
The phrase below, Gam Zu L’tova, means “This also is for good”, which is connected to the concept of trust, Bitachon.
More on these to be added soon.
A small start with glass painting and my daughter took off with her painting one day of her mid-term break…
Let’s keep moving – doing things that we enjoy and that give us a sense of success in what we accomplish!
As the old saying goes… practice makes perfect.
A well known phrase – so why is it so easily forgotten?
My “Move” this week was to start practicing. As usual, getting myself to buckle down and do it was the main hurdle. In my mind, I picture myself incorporating Hebrew and English letters and words into various things I want to make. So much easier in my mind than in action – my writing Hebrew letters is painstakingly slow. Somehow in my 40-something year old brain I forgot about practicing.
So, today, I started with the letter Aleph – the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and a letter that has a numerical value of 1. A great starting place for step number 1 
This letter is rich with deep meanings… but more about that in the future.
Drawing the alephs brought back memories of practicing…. practicing letters and penmanship, practicing cursive italics with pen and ink, practicing flute, practicing math problems. As I practiced painting א, I realized that skills that I admire in others don’t flow from me more out of lack of practice than out of lack of talent. If I could spend more time engaging in and practicing the things I like, I know I could be very successful in them!
I think this is, in many cases, the division point between children learning a new skill and adults. Children are taught and expected to spend time “practicing”. Adults don’t need any less practice for developing skills, they just have other expectations and responsibilities to attend to that tend to decrease ability to put time and attention into “just practicing”. So many of us have this inner drive to constantly be accomplishing something all of the time, that it is difficult to take a step back and do remedial practicing.
So, while my “big move” for this week may seem like a very small thing (especially for an adult), I am eager to see where starting to practice will take me.
Moving along with Made-a-Move Mondays
- DebBee
This week I made Foccacia bread, per special request, for an event with over 100 participants.
As I want to do and give my best, I am posting my Foccacia recipe (on a more normal scale) here to share with you. It takes a bit of work, but is soooooo worth it!! Make a move to try it and Enjoy!
Stand mixer with paddle attachment, dough hook optional
In mixer bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water and allow to proof (let it sit for 5 – 10 min). Add olive oil, canola oil, salt, Italian seasoning, and garlic. With paddle attachment, mix in 3 cups of flour – start at slowest speed and then increase mixer speed to medium to whip the dough until it begins to leave the sides of mixer bowl (approximately 7 – 10 min.)
Mix in 2 1/2 cups flour by hand or with a dough hook and knead until smooth.
Dough should be soft but not too sticky. If sticky, knead a little more flour in. Allow dough to rise until doubled in size either on lightly floured counter with large inverted bowl over it or in large bowl, covered (with plastic wrap or damp tight-woven towel) to keep dough from drying out. Rising time will depend on warmth of location (approx 30 min to 1 hour). If using regular active dry yeast (instead of quick rise), punch dough down and allow to rise again.
Divide dough to size desired (see below) and either roll flat with rolling pin or press out flat with hands to shape of pan.
Prepare pans by oiling them. This recipe is enough for two 13 inch pizza pans. Type of pan is up to you – the picture below is an 8″ square pan with just over 1 pound of dough (recipe would fill 3 of these pans).
Allow dough to rise in pans approximately 30 minutes (again loosely covered in plastic wrap to prevent drying – can oil the plastic wrap to prevent sticking).
Coarse Kosher Salt and Crushed rosemary on top. Using 2 – 3 finger tips, poke lots of ‘dents’ downward in dough.
Garlic/ Tomato Foccacia: First I lightly rub a little olive oil over top of bread dough. Sprinkle a little Coarse Kosher Salt and Crushed rosemary on top. Press fresh garlic cloves (cut in approximately halves depending on size of each clove) down into dough. Press thin slices of tomatoes onto dough. Using 2 – 3 finger tips, poke lots of ‘dents’ downward in dough.
Other topping ideas: Diced red onion, basil, thinly sliced and/ or roasted peppers, pesto, olives, ….
Bake breads at about 385 deg F until golden brown on top and slightly brown on bottom (approximately 20 – 40 min. depending on size, thickness and quantity in oven)
Cool on racks.
Enjoy!
בס”ד
I did it!! I made a move!!
It wasn’t easy to break out of my habitual “would-could-should” rut and life in ‘side-tracked city’. But, with the help of my commitment to “Made-a-Move Mondays” and getting my daughter to pull me into my workshop… “Are you coming soon?”…
Granted she had to pull me away from my distractions by showing me that she already made this: 
Ok, in the time it took me to make this:
My daughter made:
In a failed attempt to be helpful (???) someone we showed our accomplishments to afterwards advised me to “do what you are best at, coming up with designs and ideas, and let your daughter do the painting.”
Jaw drop.
Ok. I know I need more practice. Yes, I know art flows from my daughter’s hands as naturally as 6-strand challah (bread) braids flow from mine. (Ok – yes, she can do that too!!).
Looking past the surprising delivery and timing of the comment, I can consider ‘Was their unsolicited advice true?’ Maybe yes and maybe no – I know I have done much better pieces in the past (I have been painting glass plates about once or twice a year for the past several years) and that I am capable of doing much better. It’s been a long time – this was just getting my feet wet again. I love to share artistic ideas with my daughter and take great pleasure in watching her turn them into things spectacular beyond my imagination. A very big part of my dreams is to share the crafty things I like to dabble in with others and be a catalyst for them to soar with them.
But, the most essential point was completely missed by the meant-to-be adviser – I made a move!! I took dreams I started several years ago, materials I bought several months ago, and a design I sketched out several weeks ago and put them into action. I then went on and started on another idea I’ve been developing:
It’s a start. Small. But, tangible! And I am eager to do more… to keep the ball rolling. And, this time, with the help of my commitment to YOU in ‘Made-a-Move Mondays’, I really think I will.
Thank you, Darren Hardy, for the great advice!
And, Thank YOU for keeping me to my commitment!
Lets continue to grow and blossom together!
- DebBee
בס”ד
Here it is, last day of Winter break and I have accomplished none of the projects I have been dreaming about doing – I got one of them set up for someone else to do during break. It still sits out waiting for me to make use of it.
My paints have been calling me.... no answer... "Line is Busy"
I was able to put over 2 hours into making and decorating a cake for someone – but no time to do the artwork I want to do for my dreams.
My DH has been begging me to “Do Something”. He believes in me. He has been infinitely patient with my plans to make and sell all kinds of things I dream of doing. But finances are increasingly tight and my ability to focus and accomplish continues to allude me.
I’m going to take the advice of the Rabbi Friedman video clip I saw yesterday and not waste time, and derail myself further, by asking WHY I am not doing what is so clear in my mind that I want to do, but instead work on the question of WHAT I am going to do about it.
In a recent posting, Darren Hardy spelled out what I need to do about it. He stated: “It doesn’t matter your goal and it doesn’t matter your anchor, the formula is the same.
Take your goal and anchor it with something tangible. Track it and display your tracking publicly.”
I am very determined and dedicated to keep my commitments to others and I am careful of what commitments I agree to – whether it is to my employer, to my kids, to people I bake bread and desserts for, etc.
So, here is my commitment to YOU, my DH, my Uncle S, and myself. “Made-a-Move Mondays” - My commitment to be SNM – Stuck-No-More!!! My commitment (bli neder) to post on every Monday (IYH) something, anything, I created in the past week. – It could be one of my crafting projects, a writing, a prototype …. Something tangible – not just more ideas to add to my wish list. Not just progress for setting things up for future projects – but actual things I completed.
I welcome you to join me in being SNM. Share with me how you are making a move to be “stuck-no-more” – what are you committing yourself to accomplish? What progress did you make on that commitment this week?
Wishing all a good, happy, healthy and successful 2012!!
Lets grow and blossom together!
- DebBee