Tehilla screeches out the door on Monday and Tuesday mornings to catch the van to Kochav Hashachar, a settlement near the Jordanian border. If she misses the van, she turns around and comes wearily home. There's no other way to get to school. She's an English teacher, and she is very happy there - especially now that she doesn't have the sixth grade.

Her big goal for this year is to graduate from Michlalah College with a B.Ed. degree. She's down to a handful of requirements, but that handful is more like a plateful. We're all rootin' for her and giving her whatever help and support we can. Go, go Tehilla!

Tehilla had been our ZolPo supermarket shopper and did a fine job. She shopped, she schlepped, and we ate. Now she does the prodie shopping. She shops, she schleps, and we eat. Way to go!

Tehilla has decided to make a major change in her life. She used to dress like a Bais Yakov girl. She had attended a Bais Yakov school through eighth grade. In recent months she subtly changed her dress to reflect the yishuv - settlement - in which she teaches. Always modest in appearance, her skirts are now longer and approach her ankles. It's a whole new look for her.

She attends various religious lectures (shiurim). One of them is given by Mira Schuster in memory of Nissim HaCohen, who was killed by an Arab attack near the Machaneh Yehuda open-air market. The shiur is held in the HaCohen home here in our neighborhood every Wednesday evening. She also attends a shiur given by the community rabbi after Mincha on Shabbat.

Mira Schuster also runs a Shmirat HaLashon project, and Tehilla handles some of its bureaucratic work. Of course, her attendance at the Shiurim and her work with the Shmirat Halashon project offers her the opportunity to chat outside on the path with Mira for, say, an hour or so, making for a very late night for all.

After Abba, Tehilla is the most computer literate of the rest of us. She just sits right down and knows just where to go for Solitaire, Mahjongg, Ringjongg, Mindsweeper, and other important stuff. She also knows how to surf the web using her mouse and keys instead of a surfboard. She finds the information that she needs for Michlalah, or the bus schedule to Ashdod, or to find out the details of the latest terrorist activity.

Exuberance

Exuberance. That's probably the best way to describe Tehilla's accomplishments during 5763. She devotes herself intensively to every task that has to be done with a determination to complete it, and to succeed.

During 5763 she and David developed a new way of giving herself a brief, timed goal, possibly of a minute or two, so that she could achieve more in less time.

During 5763 she completed her requirements for the B.Ed. degree and she is awaiting the grades. She accepted maternity leave and subbing positions in various schools, since she could not find a regular job. She devoted herself to her Tehillim and to her regular shiurim that she took in various places, as well as to her few remaining courses in Michlalah. Those courses weren't needed for her degree, but she wanted to add more Kodesh courses to her neighborhood shiurim.