Shana Tova

We celebrated Rosh Hashanah this week. It's the beginning of the Civil New Year in Israel. It's also when the year changes. And as I was thinking back over this past year, one of the things I really want to improve on is my blogging....I've been horribly silent for several months now. Please forgive me my friends. I will try diligently to post at least once a month if not more. So let me catch you up on the news and the blessings!

We finished tax season 18 April 2011 with more returns done by fewer people than the year before. Even the district manager was impressed. We did not pass last year on income, but that's OK. We finished the season with money in the bank to pay the bills thru the end of the year, got several new clients and overall had a really impressive season for newbies. (Newbie owners, not tax pros. Grin) Then in March we were informed the bank was going to raise the rent on our office....to an unacceptable rate. So tax season ended and we moved the office to a new space. We have spent the entire summer renovating and redecorating this new space. But look at Papa's hand in this.....We have almost 5 times the space as  before, and our rent is almost $100 LESS! Isn't Papa awesome!?!?! The new location is only around the corner from the old place, but we're in a 100 yr old building, with landlords that are incredible!!! They pretty much have let us do whatever we want to do and when they came to see our improvements the end of June, they were speechless. I'll try to get pictures to post in another post the show the before/after. It's pretty cool.

We had a wonderful Pesach in our yard with several friends joining us. (Got pics of that too.....sigh) Then got to go see Grandma in July. We've had almost no rain down here so leaving for any extended time is a little scary. (We're about 25 inches short on rain so everything is crispy and a fire hazard.) In June we went to Dallas for the district convention and the boys had a blast! They got to go places, play and see folks....I was at work. Double sigh. But I got to go to the Holocaust Museum with them before we left Dallas to head south to home again. It was horribly sad, but incredibly informative at the same time. And there was a Holocaust survivor there who signed a book for Little Critter! That made what we saw inside even sadder....this poor man had experienced all that horror as a teenager. Praise Yah, he survived and is willing to tell others how to prevent it happening again!

In August we went to Kansas City Mo for a new franchisee training I had to attend. Again the boys had a BLAST!!! I was in class all day.....this seems to be a recurring theme doesn't it. Hmmmm. But I learned lots, made some great friends and got to enjoy some fun with the boys on the way up and back. So it's all good.

Now I'm teaching 5 new folks how to do taxes, coaching Little Critter's soccer team, taking care of my folks and attempting to keep the house from being condemned!!!! While still doing taxes at the office. We have a couple of book keeping clients (toda Yah) and hope to get some more. Life is full, we're enjoying ourselves and Papa has sent SO many love letters I could write for days trying to tell them all to you...but you're my friends and I won't do that to you. This time. Giggle. Know I pray for you daily and ask Papa to show you His love letters too. May you find your names written in His Book of Life and may your new year be a sweet, joyful, healthy year. Shalom, Spitfire

The Tax Man Calleth.....

Boker Tov (Good Morning), my dear friends. I realize I haven't written in more than a month...boy have I got news to tell you! I don't remember if I mentioned this several months ago, but Dodi and I were discussing buying the H&R Block office I've worked at and managed the last several years. The owner has some health problems, and really needed to sell the office. He approached me and asked if I was interested. Well, long story short, we did it. We bought the office back in October. Due to change ups in Corporate offices, the contract with Block wasn't signed until the Thursday before the office officially opened in December. So we signed papers with Corporate, and then opened the office the following Monday....whew! We did great in December with the Emerald Advances....beat last years total done. Pretty good for a couple of rookies! We'd prayed and told Papa if it was His Will for us to have this office, He'd have to provide what we needed. And He did. If things continue the way they're going, we should be completely out of debt both in the office and the house in 3 years. WooHoo!
Come January, we rehired two employees from last year's tax season, Dodi was hired and my former boss stayed on as my mentor. So far this tax season, we've already done more than half the returns we did last tax season. And we've gained several new clients. Pretty exciting for us and for the office! We're hoping to pick up some book keeping work for the off season to help with getting everything paid off. And to broaden the scope of services for the office. So it looks like we'll be busy for a couple more months. Of course this means I  may not get to post as often as I would like....but I know you'll understand.
We also got some troubling news in January. We've been driving 3 hours one way to go to Tabernacle for the last 7 months. We LOVE the congregation and the Rabbi is wonderful. We'd hoped to be able to work out something with them for Little Critter to begin his Bar Mitzvah classes there. Unfortunately, they require him to attend weekly...and won't allow us to do any of the work in homeschool. That made it impossible to do with tax season and the shop too...so. I'm relying on Papa to take care of this problem. Little Critter will be turning 11 next month and we REALLY need to get him into some kind of Bar Mitzvah class soon. And while I was devastated that we were denied our request, I also understand the teacher's refusal. And I know Papa wasn't at all surprised at this turn of events. So we're waiting to see what direction He would have us go now on this issue. There is a slightly closer Synagogue we can approach, but it's in a higher traffic area. Sigh. There just isn't one near us. So perhaps we're to go somewhere new. Again. I know He has a place for us....we just have to find it. And listen for His directions. But Little Critter is doing pretty good on his other school work and doing his work at the office too. (He gathers trash everyday and takes it out twice a week, and then makes the coffee first thing when we arrive.) So overall, it's all good.
Well, it's getting late and I have to get up early. No calling in sick for me for another 2 1/2 months.....but look out May!!! Giggle. Hope things are going great for everyone. Pops, thrilled you're doing better after your surgery. Abouna, you take care of yourself Sweetie. No more pnuemonia or I really WILL send you Jewish Penicillin!!!! Nanc, hugs to you dear one. Stay warm. And to everyone else, know that even when I'm silent for a bit, I pray for each of you daily. May Papa bless you with His joy, peace and love. Stay warm! Shalom, Spitfire

Happy Hanukkah!

Hello my sweet friends. I see it's been a month again since last I posted.....oops. I'm sorry. And for those of you who sent me private emails, I'm SO sorry I worried you! Life has been incredibly busy and I'm a little behind the ball.....but it's going to get better! I have faith! Now, let's get on with this post!

 This Wednesday, we began the holiday of Hanukkah. For those who don't know what this holiday is, it's also known as the Festival of Lights or the Feast of Dedication. If you look in your B'rit Hadasha (New Covenant) in John 10:22, it mentions that Yeshua was at the Temple in Yerushalayim for the Feast of Dedication...This is not a Levitical feast, but it is a Hebrew feast. See way back during the Hasmonean Era in the land of Israel, there was a family named Macabbee. Matthithias was the father and was a righteous, priest of the line of Aaron. He had 5 sons who were also righteous men. Now the Seleucids were taking over the land of Israel and their king Antiochus IV had conquered Yerushalayim. Now as if that wasn't bad enough, this king also put an altar on top of Papa's altar, and slaughtered pigs on that altar! He totally trashed the Temple, the house of the Father! Then he proceeded to terrorize and murder the Israelites, ruled that the practice of their faith was unlawful, and tried to burn all the scrolls. Matthithias was furious and vowed to destroy the Seleucids. He did a pretty good job, but he was old and died before the war was finished. So his sons took over. The eldest was Y'huda (Judas) Maccabee also known as the Hammer. Well, Y'huda and his brothers followed YHWH's ways faithfully and were strong leaders. So they fought the Seleucids and eventually won freedom for the Israelites and the land of Israel. This is all told in the apocryphal book named appropriately 1st Maccabbees. There are 4  books of the Maccabbees, but they were taken out of our modern Bibles a long time ago, and put with the other apocryphal books. (some of those are really COOL books! You should read them sometime.) Back to our story. The Maccabbees ruled wisely for many years, but eventually greed, corruption and forgetting YHWH took place and the Hasmonean Era ended with all the Maccabbees gone....sigh. Oh, I forgot the best part!!! Silly me.

So after Y'huda Maccabbee and his army had wrested Yerushalayim from the Seleucids, they cleansed the Temple, rebuilt the altar according the Mosaic Law, and reinstalled the Golden Menorah. They could only find one flask of consecrated oil to light the Menorah with. And it takes 8 days to prepare fresh oil. So they lit the Menorah with the oil they had, then left the Temple to go help prepare a fresh batch to keep the Menorah lit all the time as commanded in Exodus. Well, when they arrived back 8 days later....fully expecting the Menorah to not be lit anymore due to lack of oil.......guess what! It was STILL burning!  Now normally, the priests had to fill the Menorah's branches twice a day to keep it burning. But this time, it burned for 8 days with only one filling!!! Hence the phrase, "A great miracle occurred there" ("here" if you live in Israel). So during Hanukkah, we light one candle a night until we have all 8 candles burning taking us to the end of the 8 days festival. For those of us who know Yeshua, He's there too.....see there's a 9th candle that is only used to light the other candles. It's called the Shamash or Servant Candle....Aha! Did you catch that??? The Shamash is the servant candle.....it represents Yeshua! Now, in our family, we exchange small gifts with each other each of the 8 nights with one night being a bigger gift. And we fry lots of foods to eat to represent the provision of the oil burning so long. If you've never experienced Hanukkah, it's LOADS of fun! There's latkes to eat, and sufnyiot (jelly donut like pastries), and chocolate gelt (like coins) and kugel (noodle dish to die for) and songs to sing, and dreidle to play....oh the fun!!!!!

So in among the other things going on....and there's a ton of them,(but that's for another post)....we've been having a blast celebrating Hanukkah. And as we're celebrating and reading the story of the Maccabees, we're also offering prayers that Papa would spread some of our joy into your lives, and bless you each with His Love. I'll try my best to post again soon....probably from Grandma's house at the end of the month and try to catch you up on all the other stuff. In the meantime, know I thank Papa for each of you my friends each day during my prayers and am SO blessed by having you in my life. Happy Hanukkah! Spitfire