I was having such epiphanies in the car this morning on the way to work. Of course I've forgotten them all now. The more I try to "be observant" the more satisfying it is--but at the same time I don't want to go too far so that I feel like I've failed if I decrease the mitzvot I am doing.

I emailed the askmoses.com website to ask about covering my hair, since I'm not married officially by Halacha, and they replied that if I was already donig it I should continue...but since I had already stopped by the time I emailed--I decided not to.

Actually, I am feeling more and more comfortable with my/our level of observance in our home.

I spend a lot of our free time with kids in Jewish educational type activities (i.e. if we watch a movie, it might be on the topic--if we read a storybook, it is often a Jewish kids book, etc).
I say brachas often, and we celebrate the Sabbath, although not doing everything correctly, we do have dinner/candle lighting/kiddush etc and try to spend Saturdays in family activity including going to Shul, visiting the Rabbi's house, etc...

That's my update for now. Till next time...

Sin of Idolatry

You know, I think of idolatry as a sin not in as a "wrongdoing," but maybe more as having a mistaken understanding of the way things work.
I think of it as Hash-m is an ultimate power, and all else is of lesser strength--so when we grasp at a straw, or a string or even a rope, it is never as strong as our trusting above all in Hash-m, and when we grasp at something lesser, it always has the possibility of breaking.

That is the freedom and correctness of not being "idolotrous" in any way.

We idolize our relationships (oh, if only he/she liked me)
We idolize material things (if I had this car/house/etc I could be happy and at peace)

All this can be taken away. Only inner peace survives--and inner peace exists when we are in concurrence with Hash-m's rules of operation. I don't pretend to understand all of the rules yet, most likely not ever, but I do feel that searching for them and acting upon them is the surest way to true joy.