OCEANS OF JOY

Welcome, and thanks for stopping by!

My name is Avivah Werner, and I’m the mother of ten wonderful children ages infant – 19, married to my amazing husband for over twenty years.

I initially started this blog with the intent to focus on parenting, but in response to reader requests, have expanded over time to include many other topics that are of interest to my readers!  My focus as a parent is on creating an atmosphere of joy and interconnectedness among family members, and I’ve spent years crafting and implementing relationship-based strategies.  My goal is to share with others how to create an positive atmosphere in their own homes, and I’ve been gratified that the parenting insights and experiences I’ve shared have inspired and guided hundreds of parents from across the world.

I began learning about and implementing the nutritional strategies of Dr. Weston Price in 2005, and it is from this perspective that I share about how I nourish my family.  I have an alternative approach not just to nutrition but health in general, which makes us infrequent visitors to the doctor and makes antibiotics usage rare in our home (four times total over the last eighteen years).

Living well on one modest income has been a challenge I’ve enjoyed, and I encourage families of all income levels to find abundance and joy while being good stewards of all that they have!  You’ll find lots of tips here that can make a serious difference in how far your money goes if you’re willing to apply them.

I’ve enjoyed homeschooling all of our children for eleven years, including graduating two children from high school.  I’m grateful that my efforts to share inspiration and create support for home educators have been fundamental in the growing acceptance of home education in the Orthodox Jewish community.  I founded the largest home education support group for Orthodox Jews in the country, am long-term moderator of an international listserve for Torah homeschoolers, and am founder of the first and only national conference for Orthodox home educators, the annual Torah Home Education Conference.  I’ve written on the topic of home education for local and national publication, as well as extensively contributing to several online venues, and have produced the only recordings geared to the Orthodox community about homeschooling.  We moved to Israel is August 2011 and our children are in school for the first time – which makes us appreciate and miss homeschooling that much more!  (We anticipate returning to homeschooling in the near future.)

In July 2012, we began on a new journey when our beautiful baby boy was born with Trisomy 21.  You’ll now find posts in which I share about our experience and thoughts on what we’re learning along the way.  We’re all more alike than different.  And more than that, it’s okay to be different!

I know this makes my blog kind of eclectic and hard to classify, but there are lots of things that go into making a large family work and I love sharing about them all!  Whether you’re a mother of many or none, I hope that you’ll find encouragement and inspiration here.

(My family, January 2012.)

Thank you again for visiting, and I hope you find something here that will impact your life for the better!

Avivah