Nothing to write about as far as yesterday goes. A pretty normal day.
The night was a little crazy. I think the Israeli army who guard the fence behind out house was looking for someone who may have tried to cross b/c they were firing flares up into the night sky to light it up. It was pretty noisy out there and it drew a crowd from Chashmonaim who were all talking about what may or may not be going on.
Today we hit the beach as soon as both kids were home from school. Talia came home and we packed up and picked up Jere and then Ben and went to the beach. It was a beautiful day and we even went swimming for the first time since the winter. Even Keren changed into her suit and went to the edge of the water with Eric and up to her tummy!
Anyway, I should have brought my camera but we have a lot of beach pictures and I didn’t think we would play in the water…
So it is going to be Shabbat in about 20 minutes so I am going to do the last minute preparations and get ready.
So today was Keren’s 1st birthday!!! We didn’t do much to celebrate it. In the morning I combed throug the kids’ hair as they talked to Eric’s mom on SightSpeed. Then they ate and got to school just a few minutes later than usual.
Eric and I took Keren for a walk this morning around the yishuv. She wasn’t happy and we had to cut it short. She was really tired for some reason and kind of cranky. I assumed it was just b/c she was depressed about getting old! She is already one, that means in no time she’ll be going off to nursery school and before we turn around she’ll be graduating from college!! I totally know how she felt today!
Anyway, after a lonnng nap for Keren and 2 loads of laundry for me, it was time to pick up Ben. We hung out in the playground with Ben and Keren for about 20 minutes after gan. It was hot today so 20 minutes was as long as we could handle at 1:30. Keren loves loves loves to go down the slide. She even does it by herself!!
We came home and made slushies to cool off and had lunch and then made a birthday cake for Keren.
Eric and Ben went to play baseball again outside (they are on a roll) and I joined them after I finished cleaning up. Savta came a little while later and then Talia came home from school soon after that. The kids made Keren a crown for her to wear during her “party” with the family.
We frosted and decorated the cake and slapped the crown on top of her head and then sang to her. We ate cake and Talia gave her a present and a card that she made for her in school.
Then we went to the mall with Savta for dinner. Ben got sushi while Talia got Chinese food and Eric and I both got chicken salads (fried for me, baked for him). Savta insisted that she wasn’t a picky eater but when we got to the mall insisted she didn’t want anything to eat b/c she wasn’t hungry but I think it was because she didn’t like the choices. I didn’t want to go out at all. I told her that because we weren’t sure if she was coming today I had prepared dinner. She gave me a hard time and said she likes to go out!! WHATEVER! So we ate and she didn’t. It was nice anyway.
When we came home she went home and Eric went up to work and I got the kids bathed, combed out and into bed.
I can’t believe that my baby is 1!! I also can’t believe that she isn’t walking yet. Only 3 steps to show for herself
Well, last night marked the beginning of Lag Ba’Omer and the bonfires were roaring!!!
The kids came home from school and I made them each take a nap so they could stay up late for Talia’s medurah (bonfire). They both took a nice nap and then hung out until it was time to go.
They had a great time singing and dancing (Talia) and playing with the fire (Ben). They baked potatoes, roasted marshmallows and ate pita sandwiches with french fries and hot dogs. Talia’s music teacher was there with her guitar. It was really something special!!!
At 9 when we got home we took the car for a drive around the yeshuv to see the older kids and their medurot. People here are very serious about the construction of their medurot. Plenty of families make their own and we saw people with saws, hammers and nails constructing their own perfect tall triangular piles of wood that would burn straight up in the air. It was something to see.
Here are the pictures we took:
Here are the videos of Talia and her friends singing and dancing. It’s already dark and hard to see but Talia is the little one with the short sleeves white shirt and orange crown on:
Today the kids woke up early and left me alone until 7:30 (yay) at which time they were fighting over the computer and came to wake me up. Keren woke up too around that time so I had to get up anyway. We hung out until 11 at which time the Chabad here had a parade that they invited the kids on the yishuv to be a part of. So we marched in the hot sun in the parade. It wasn’t too much fun but when we got to the moadon noar they gave the kids ices to eat and they were happy. Then, after a lot of chabad chanting about hashem and saying a bunch of tehillim, they finally got down to the main act. This guy came on and he played all kinds of instruments that he made out of household objects. It was very cute and the kids really enjoyed it. Keren didn’t have patience and Eric brought her home and played with her outside for a bit until we came home.
We had a BBQ for lunch and then I fell asleep for a little while Eric played baseball with the kids. He said he was a daddy, he played baseball with the kids. I can’t tell you how happy that made me!!!!!!!
At 4 we went to a carnival that they had for the kids for Lag Ba’Omer. The kids had a great time. Even Keren found a little car to ride around on and was very busy with that for quite some time. Eric joined us for a little while after he got some work done and then he came home with us.
Unfortunately, while getting the kids ready for bed I did find lice in Ben’s hair. Here we go again. While I was combing him out Eric was running around the house looking for the other lice comb so he could comb himself out. He is so funny. I am so not getting excited this time. First of all, I have been diligent this time and I only found 1 bug, whereas last time there was a lot. It is also nice that Eric his here this time for the moral support and I am not left alone. So, I put a ton of conditioner on their heads and put on the plastic shower caps that I stole from the hotel this Pesach knowing that we would need them in the future for lice and put Talia and Ben to sleep. Tomorrow I will comb them out after breakfast and then send them to school. I’ll throw some sheets over the couches and wash the kids’ linen and roll up the rug and we’ll be good to go! Here I was thinking that I would get by with only one bought of lice this year. How wrong I was!!
Shabbat was nice. Nothing much out of the ordinary. Friday night we put the kids to sleep and then ate a nice quiet meal by ourselves. Shabbat day I spent the morning relaxing while the kids were in shul with Eric and Keren took a 3 hour nap!
We ate lunch and then the neighbors came over to play with the kids. Eric took a nap on the couch while I played with Keren and with Ben (he would come play with me when the girls were being mean to him).
At 4 I took Keren and Ben to the park and Eric followed a little while later. Keren had a blast sliding down the slide and playing on the swings. I was exhausted from carrying her all over the place. Gone are the days when she sits on my lap or in the stroller content to watch the kids play.
We came home with Keren and Ben and gave them their dinner. Talia came home a little while later and ate and then we got them all to sleep. Talia heard all the noise outside while she was trying to fall asleep and decided that next week she is going to take a nap in the afternoon so she can stay up late until after Shabbat is over so she can also play outside. We’ll see what happens…
I finished an amazing book that I highly recommend called The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I read it for my book club and it was really great. I think I read the whole thing in 3 or 4 sittings.
After Shabbat we watched Bride Wars which Eric had downloaded on his last trip to America. It was adorable.
This morning Eric let me sleep late and he took the kids to school. I woke up and came down and saw Keren and Eric sitting on the couch watching Baby Einstein. Keren was mesmerized. She didn’t move the while time and at the end Eric had a huge drool stain on his shirt.
I cleaned off the baby seat that goes on the back of my bike and we put Keren in a went for a bike ride. It was short lived b/c the helmet was much too big on her. The other kids used it but they were each one and a half. Keren is not yet one. So I am going to have to figure something out. I don’t think they make helmets much smaller than that.
We came home and put Keren in for a nap and then just hung out before the kids came home from school. I wanted to watch the last episode of Grey’s Anatomy but something happened during the download and it was on good!! So sad!! I hope another one comes in so I can watch it tonight.
When the kids came home we went out to lunch at a place in Modiin, kind of as a Mother’s Day thing. The kids loved the food there (they both got a different kind of pasta while Keren shared all of our food) and they were really good. It was very nice.
When we came home Talia went straight to English and we went to find out what houses are on the market or for rent here. I think we need to keep our options open and figure out what we are going to do after the summer. I have a feeling we are going to have to find another house. Our landlord won’t give us an answer to whether we can have the house another year. Anyway, there is not too much out there but we are optimistic that something will come up anyway.
After that I went to pick Talia up and we came home and did some practice on English spelling words since she didn’t do too well on her test. Ben and Keren went outside to play with Eric and when we were finished with the spelling words we played cards.
By this evening Grey’s Anatomy was downloaded and we watched it and now we are watching 30 Rock, my new favorite show!!!
Just came back from picking Eric up from the airport.
The kids went to school today and lucky for me I did most of my cooking in bits and pieces because Keren barely took a nap this morning. We basically hung out this morning and waited for the kids to come home.
I took Keren for a walk to pick Talia up but we missed each other b/c she decided to walk another way. Luckily she saw me and tried to call me but I didn’t hear her. She caught up to me and we went home. From there we went to the makolet to pick up a few things and the bakery to get some bourekas.
Ben was the abba shel Shabbat today and he was verrrry excited!! He had to bring in a treat for everyone. Of course they only told me about it on Thursday after I had finished my shopping. Luckily I had to go out anyway to get passport pictures taken for me and for the kids so we ran to the supermarket after that.
Talia went next door to play for a bit while I gave Ben his lunch. Then she came home and ate her lunch and we went to pick Eric up. This time I didn’t leave until he called me. We didn’t have to wait at all this time!!
So now I am just going to do some last minute things for Shabbat and hang out with the kids for a while.
Yesterday I took Keren to the dermatologist after taking the kids to school. He looked at the things on her neck and said he didn’t think they were anything to worry about. He gave me a prescription for Bactroban and sent me on my way. Today she seems to have fewer of them and the ones that she has look a lot better.
After school Ben had his baking chug, which he hasn’t gone to in a while and he was very excited to go. Jere called me to tell me that her daughter was kicking her out of the house b/c she had a friend over and they wanted to watch a movie without her there. She lives in a small 2 bedroom apt. in some one’s basement. So she came over here and watched the rest of the movie that she started the night before when I was at tennis. I was glad to have her over b/c I had to take Talia to English and pick Ben up from his chug and I was able to do it all while Keren slept. So she got a really good afternoon nap in. I also made 3 things for dinner last night. I am so flishiged out that I made 2 pasta dishes and one tuna, spinach, cheese casserole. Now I have plenty of dairy!
Today Keren and I took the kids to school and then hung out around the house. I let her play outside for a while. If she had her way she would spend the whole day outdoors! She walked a lot pushing her little walker toy. She also walks pushing the little tykes car. The funny thing (and this cracks Ben up) is that she will walk while holding just the open door of the car and therefor the car just goes around in circles and she goes round and round. It is hysterical to watch.
Anyway, we eventually came in and made cookies and challah and then she took her nap.
When the kids came home in the afternoon my grandparents came over. My grandmother brought me her chicken for Shabbat that she wanted me to BBQ for her. So I did that and I did some shopping while she stayed with the kids. I noticed this morning in Talia’s book for school that she has been forging Eric’s initials by her work!!!! When I ask her every day if she has homework she says no and then she just forges the signature!! I almost killed her. The best part of the whole thing is that when I asked her about it she got all upset and INSISTED that she didn’t do it!! I asked who did. She said Eric did!! Oh My G-d! I am in for some real trouble when she gets older. Eric said he didn’t start doing things like that until 4th grade. I eventually got her to confess. I mean, there was no way out of it since 1. Eric never does homework with her and 2. I knew that wasn’t his signature and she knew that I knew. So I made her redo every single assignment on the spot and we were doing homework FOREVER today.
Anyway, after the homework I let her play dance dance revolution and then we went out to dinner with my grandparents. While we were there Talia realized that she was supposed to go to her school for something this afternoon and she said she brought home a note saying as much but she totally forgot about it. Sure enough, when we came home we saw kids all over the yishuv collecting firewood for Lag Ba’Omer and the note said she had to be at school from 4:30-6:30. It was 6:30 then and she was devastated. I wanted to tell her that that’s what happens when you lie about something to your mom, you forget something else that’s fun that you wanted to do but I didn’t think that would have gone over so well so i kept my mouth shut. So she was depressed about that and had a pretty bad night the rest of the night. Luckily she goes to sleep at 7 so she didn’t have that much time to think about it.
So now I am going to go fold laundry and watch American Idol. I heard it was a good one.
What a CRAZY night we had here last night. We had a sharav. I am not sure of the meaning of this word. I think it should mean tornado or hurricane but I think it just means some kind of wind where there is a lot of dust/sand in the air. Anyway, Talia, Ben and I were all woken last night around 3-ish by the loud noises that the trisim were making banging against the windows from the insane insane insane wind. Eventually I got them back to sleep together in Talia’s room and I fell asleep a little while later. Of course there was damage. The roof to our already broken shed which was propped up against the house b/c we had the BBQ and we needed it out of the way blew up and over the fence and into a million pieces. It took Ben and I quite some time to locate it this morning, actually! So I don’t think we will EVER get a new shed at this rate. Also, the clay sign that we had hanging outside of our door that Eric and I made in camp cracked in half. I am hoping that some crazy glue will hold it back together and it will look okay. I have a feeling that it will hold for a while but not through another wind.
Today after taking Talia to school Ben and I went with Keren to tipat chalav and Ben got the last of his shots that he was missing. The electricity in the building went out when we got there and we had to walk up the 5 flights. Of course the stairwells here have no emergency lighting so we were all using our cellphones as mini flashlights. Some lady was very nice and she held Keren while I carried the stroller up.
Ben got his shot and had his eyes checked and she checked out some of his other skills, ie, following directions, coloring a picture, building with blocks and then I took him to school and Keren home to nap. We had to walk back down the stairs b/c just when we wanted to go down the electricity went off again. I met a friend on the way down and we walked out together and her hat blew off and away! She had to go running after it. The sight of the charedi women holding on to their sheitels was great. The men had to hold onto their black hats. Anyway, what is usually a 1 minute trip took us 30 minutes b/c there was an electric wire down in the middle of the road and it was causing all sorts of problems.
We noticed this morning that many of the decorations that the yishuv put up for Yom Ha’azmaut were ruined too. The giant 61 and the giant cactus and the giant castle, all made out of styrofoam were all ruined. So sad.
Anyway, going back to last night, I got bitten up on my cheek by the bugs in the house. The bug zapper downstairs did a good job of catching a ton of bugs last night but the one in my room is so full that I think it needs to be cleaned out. Today I went and bought a tennis racket bug zapper. You swing it through the air and hold down the button and it zaps the bugs. It feels so good!! I can’t wait until those mosquitoes come buzzing in my ear tonight. I am going to fry them all HAHAHAHA!!
Today Ben had karate and then a party afterwards. He was so excited to have a party since Talia is always going to parties and he is always left behind. So I didn’t see him from 4-6. It was nice b/c I was able to quietly do homework with Talia (well, Keren was still here). She worked really nicely withme, for a change, and we did quite a bit of work together including English homework not due until the 12th.
Tonight I had tennis. Jere came over to sit for me. Eric had left an envelope that someone gave him to take to America sitting on the dresser here. Luckily, he found someone leaving tonight from here so after tennis I asked Jere to wait and I dropped it off at their house so he could take it and save Eric’s tushy!
Oh, I forgot, Talia said that the windows in her class were left open and everything was turned over, all the cubbies, and the chairs were in pieces so they had to sit on their school bags the whole day!! She said everything was covered in sand!
I am going to skip right over Shabbat since it was nothing out of the ordinary. We ate out Shabbat and it was very nice. Shabbat went by fast.
Here are some cute pictures we took of Keren in the bath the other night:
Today, Sunday, was CRAZY!! We had the annual Camp Moshava Mishpachot meeting in our house and there were about 70 people here and I don’t think that included kids!! It was nuts. The worst part of it all was the fact that the door was open the whole time and now we have some new and interesting bugs crawling, flying and hopping around our house. I turned off all the lights downstairs and put one of our bug zappers down there for the night and I really hope that when I wake up in the morning there won’t be much left to worry about. I am mostly concerned with my friends the mosquitoes. I am going to order the tennis racket bug zapper that people here swear by tomorrow and hopefully that will help as I swat at them and electrocute them at the same time. Maybe it will help my tennis game, who knows?
Anyway, we had a perfect amount of food but way too much pitot. I am going to donate them tomorrow. Everything worked out well with what people brought and what we had. Eric did a great job BBQing. Everyone loved my home-made burgers so that was nice to hear. People said they were the best burgers they have ever tasted! I really didn’t do anything special to them. I think people here are used to eating those horrible store made ones that are flat as pancakes and taste light dog food.
Everyone left close to 9:30. They were very helpful cleaning up. When I came down from tucking Keren in almost the whole place was clean. I had to wash some of the serving bowls but not too much. The floor was horrible and although someone swept, I still had to mop. That wasn’t too big of a deal. I basically cleaned up while Eric got ready to go to the airport.
There was a light show going on in the back. I think someone might have tried to go through the security fence b/c the Israeli army was shooting flares up into the air which was lighting up the sky so that they could see in the dark. I don’t know who they were looking for. No there are a bunch of army vehicles riding up and down my street. Eric said that on a night like this he would like to have a gun…
So the house is once again quiet, other than all the new little critters and possibly one cricket. Eric is off to America and the kids and I have a full week ahead of us chock full of doctor appointments and who knows what other fun and exciting activities!
This morning after getting the kids to school and feeding Keren her breakfast Talia called to let me know that we were supposed to be at her school at 8:30 for the Parsha learning instead of 9. Eric was supposed to go but he was still asleep b/c he had his rent-a-cop gig last night. I got into the car and Eric came out all dressed and ready to go! So we took Keren, which made Talia really happy, and went for the 30 minutes.
When we came home Eric and I went back to pulling out the weeds in the back. This time I borrowed a rake thingy from Robin and two pairs of gloves. What a difference!!! We got it all done in no time and I only wound up with one thorn in my hand. My cut from yesterday still kills. The ground looks nice and neat and clean and we are supposed to be getting a pile of dirt to fill in the big gap that we have between the patio and the dirt area on Sunday. Let’s see if they come to do that. Eric is hopeful, I am not!
Talia came home and then soon after Ben came home too. Eric wasn’t feeling well most of the day. His stomach was bothering him. It might have had something to do with the cholent that he ate last night while on rent-a-cop duty! He said that the guy that he went with was an Israeli who told him that he was going to make Eric Israeli. They stopped at this woman’s house in Kiriat Sefer who makes cholent from her kitchen and sells it!! That’s probably what did him in. So we basically hung out the whole day and did pretty much nothing. Talia invited a friend and the 3 kids played nicely together. At some point they invited the neighbor over and then they pretty much played nicely until dinner time. Only a couple of fights between Ben and the girls.
I gave the kids dinner and bathed them and they are now watching the Brady Bunch upstairs while Keren watches Laurie Berkner downstairs. Soon it will be time for Shabbat and for bed!
This morning we took Keren to Yerushalayim with us. It was great! We went to the shuk which wasn’t crowded at all and got some great fruits and veggies for Shabbat. We also walked on Ben Yehudah a little and got Eric a police baseball cap so he doesn’t have to wear his dorky regular police hat when he goes out (which he is doing tonight). We also went to a good bakery and bought a cake for the people we are eating at this Shabbat for lunch.
On the way home I got a call from Ushi, Channah’s husband, asking me if we would host the annual mishpachot meeting for Camp Moshavah mishpachot. Channah hasn’t been feeling well and she can’t do it. I had to say yes! So she told me who to call and what we would need and we are hosting this BBQ in 3 days from now at our house for approx. 50 people!!! ahhhh!!
When we got home we dropped the stuff that we bought off at the house and picked up Ben and Eitan and went for falafel. We wound up stopping at the hardware store to find out where the pieces are for our shed that they said we would have in a couple of weeks. That was about 2 months ago or a month and a half ago. While we were waiting Robin came and got Eitan and took her home with them. We then continued on to the falafel store for lunch.
When we got home Talia was already there. Foster, the cleaning man, let her in and she was waiting for us. We spent the afternoon de-weeding the “garden” and now I am completely cut up all over my arms and hands. I had to stop eventually b/c my hands were so cut up.
Rinat came to work with Talia this afternoon and she said that she has a ton of good books in Hebrew at home and she will come and read to her a little the next time she comes. Talia’s teacher suggested that we do that for her vocabulary. So I am happy that they will have an agenda the next time she comes. She did her homework with Talia today but Talia gives her a hard time and she can’t always handle her. She is only in 8th or 9th grade after all.
Not much else happening over here. This evening I made a bunch of calls to people on the yishuv who are coming to the mishpachot meeting in order to organize food. It’s going to be a busy weekend. I actually just turned down two yeshiva girls who wanted to come for Shabbat. We are eating out and I am not going to kill myself shopping and cooking tomorrow when all I was planning on doing was sticking 4 pieces of chicken in the oven that I have already cleaned in the freezer. Oh well.
