These are times that try men's spirits.

I just spent the last couple hours writing up my weekly Parsha post. This included a bit about my feeling towards Eretz Yisroel and how I find it a bit upsetting that all Torah Jews don't feel the same way. It took a lot of effort and time. And blogger ate up. Gone.
I have now been given an opportunity to work on my middos. Just in time too. I'm of the opinion that the best way to teach your children good middos is to work on those traits yourself.
My eldest son got a reward in Talmud Torah today. He was one of 4 children in his class to go to school every day of Chol HaMoed Pesach. He got a new basketball and was very happy with it. An hour ago he went up to his room to read and left the ball downstair. Of course one of his younger brothers picked it up and started playing with it. He took it outside and it got a puncture. Needless to say my oldest was somewhat upset. But just as I managed to keep myself in check and not get angry that my work was lost in a moment, so too my son stopped, took stock and laughed it off. We managed to fix the puncture, find an appropriate place for the ball out reach of younger siblings and let it be known that taking the ball without permission is not allowed.
Every middah that we do not fix in ourselves is one that our children will have to fix. Therefore it behooves us to work on ourselves, not only for our own sake, but for the sake of our children.

If I have time I will try to reconstruct the Parshas Shalach post, but Shabbos is approaching and there is still things that need to be prepared. So, if I don't get around to it, Gut Sabbos to all.