The I Can Excercise
FemaleJewishBlogger on January 25th, 2008
Explanatory quote from AidelMaidel’s blog:
“I think this is a simple and amazing exercise. I am challenging all my readers and the following bloggers to do this exercise and to either a) list it in the comments or b) post it to their own blogs and comment below that you’ve done it. I will update this post with links to everyone’s “I can…” list. The Rules are simple:
You have 15 minutes and 15 minutes only.
- Time yourself.
- No making changes once the list is completed beyond correcting spelling mistakes.
- Be Honest. It’s okay if it’s silly or strange or weird or disconcerting.
- Resist the urge to explain yourself. Wait and see what other people will ask you to explain after they read your list.”
So, here goes
I can:
- Raise three kids while pregnant with the fourth
- Not shout at my husband when I’m angry because I’m pregnant and I’m feeling sorry for myself, but really need to get things done
- Have a baby by the side of the highway–under a tree–because we didn’t get to the hospital in time
- Stress myself out terribly every day, or make the choice not to
- Have good advice for friends who are sad and need cheering up
- Write a blog, even if it’s not the perfect pulled together one
- Cheer myself up
- Make new friends even though I didn’t used to be good at it
- Argue with my husband about fine theological points in Judaism, even though I just got to know about it at all since a year and a half ago when I started researching my religion-of-birth
- Make the kids clean up their mess
- Make the kitchen really clean at least once a week on a regular basis
- Drive a car
- Drive a tractor
- Write a simple html code and some other computery stuff like that
- Put my website on my own domain from blogger all on my own, including installing the wordpress program on a server and and refining it
- Speak both Russian and English fluently, even though I didn’t know a word of Russian till twelve years ago
- Live in both America and Russia and be mistaken for a native in both places
- Keep my children’s enthusiasm up about Judaism (with the help of their schools) even though I know hardly anything myself
- Keep my head in an emergency
- Type 60 wpm
- Work with other people in an office and get along and be respected, after entering the workforce later than most
- Keep my good attitude even though I used to be depressed for years and years
- Be sure of my opinion
- Write this list
- Keep writing this list even though I am feeling silly
- I can be a mom and a worker and a friend and a wife all in the same person, and not go crazy yet
- Sing
- Watch and critique a movie or play in my own head and later be proved right by reading other’s critical analysis
- Exist in a former-communist society
- Shout at the babushka ladies who man the metro in Moscow in the expected manner for those who being harassed by them
- I can keep on going even when things are hard
- I can nurse a kid for almost two years, and then be pregnant, and then again nurse, etc, and not complain or whine
- I can live in very close quarters with a bunch of what one-would-call-unsavory-characters for a year (due to temporary financial difficulties), and still bring my family out unharmed and polite
- Get along with my mom and sister after many betrayals
- I can be brave
- I can learn new things and expect the best
- I can say the beginning of the Shema by heart
- I can stay friends with my new friends and continue to have a good relationship
- I can fold six loads of laundry in one afternoon
- I can drive a stick shift as well as an automatic car or van
- I can not be scared when life gets me down
- I can translate Russian-English-Russian simultaneously
- I can keep a secret
January 26th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Ex-convicts????
January 26th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
You can drive a tractor? You gave birth outside next to a highway? You sound like an interesting person. I’m glad I discovered your blog. I’ll be sure to visit from now on.
January 26th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Thank you! Please visit!
January 26th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Mother in Israel: I since changed that wording because it was a little too provocative–we went through some hard times when we made one of our moves from Russia, and had to live in a particular place where almost every family next door to us had at least one member either in jail or recently from there…and it was difficult to keep a sense of self-respect for me, personally, even though there was not a good reason to be ashamed. I was most worried about the kids picking up bad habits–but aside from copying the other children’s pastime of killing ants (which I soon talked them out of) they seemed to move in to a better situation smoothly. It took me two years to get over the situation myself, though. I just started to feel like a respectable person this past year. It’s funny what effect the social surroundings have on me. One thing that really helped was meeting the local Chabad Rabbi/Rebbetzin and feeling part of a tradition that respects every human being so much.
Long answer, but that is a long subject I haven’t posted on, because I wasn’t sure what category it fell under, and if it would reveal too many personal details.
January 29th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
I always wanted to drive a tractor. Don’t know why, just always wanted to.
January 29th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
I learned to drive on a tractor…
It’s a great way to learn to drive stick-shift…
February 12th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I’m impressed! you have a really wide range of skills, including very important people handling ones. you said you liked my list because i was proud that i am organised – not at all. if I were really organised, i wouldn’t see it as an achievement.. hope all goes smoothly with your forthcoming baby – b’shaa tova u’mutzlachas – it should be at an auspicious time ( 19th Feb is a great day – it’s my birthday!)
February 12th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
That is a very sweet comment! Thank you for the good wishes!
I could use them, as I’m planning a homebirth…
June 4th, 2011 at 8:28 am
F*ckin’ remarkable things here. I’m very glad to see your article. Thanks a lot and i am looking forward to contact you. Will you please drop me a e-mail?