Wednesday my grandparents came in the afternoon and Eric’s grandmother came too.  It was very nice.  I had to run out a bunch of times, first to take Keren to the doctor for a prescription and then to take Talia and Ben to Tipat Chalav for their regular checkups.  It was really funny.  The doctor there, in addition to checking Ben’s height and weight, also made him draw a person and shapes and answer questions about situations and colors, etc.  Unfortunately, when it comes to drawing, Ben isn’t the best.  When asked to draw a person he made his usual stick figure.  He makes a head and then arms coming out of where the ears would go and feet coming out of where the chin would be.  The doctor took one look at the picture and said, in typical Israeli fashion, That’s a person?  That’s not a person!  Where is the rest of it?  I explained to her that that was as good as it gets.  She made him draw another one, this time including a body and hair and hands and feet.  He did a pretty good job.  I wish I had saved it and scanned it in so I could include it in the blog.  Oh well.

While I was running around my grandmother was sitting in the kitchen with Eric’s grandmother and they were discussing all sorts of things.  So they had some nice bonding time.  We all went out to the mall afterwards to eat.  Eric and Saba went to pick up Moshe and they came back and we all ate.  It was crazy in the mall b/c they were having a chocolate and coffee festival but it was nice anyway.

Yesterday (Thurs.) morning Eric had a checkup at the doctor b/c he needed to get a permission slip for the gym that he can work out there.  He didn’t realize it but they told him he had to bring one in. While he was there I took Keren in for a blood test to figure out what the story is with her iron.  Anyway, Eric got terrible news, or I should say that I got terrible news!!  He has high blood pressure!!  What do you do to decrease the high blood pressure?  You go low sodium!!  Now I have to cook with less salt.  We love salt!!  I am so sad.  He told me that it’s really not all about me but I am seriously mourning the loss of salt in my cooking.  So we’ll see how the food tastes this Shabbat but I can promise that my vegetable soup is going to be B L A N D!!  Eric, meanwhile, is busy running around looking at all the food in the house and letting me know what is high in sodium and what’s not.

Last night Talia came home from her chug and told me that I had to drive her back to get her water and her sweatshirt.  She said that one of the older girls took them from her and hid them.  I was fuming.  Ben had a friend here and I had to leave them with Eric (who was working at the time) and throw Keren in the car and go back there with her.  We saw the girl (an American, not an Israeli for a change) and she was holding her sweatshirt and her water.  I told her to get into the car.  She asked me why.  She said she had Talia’s stuff and was looking for her.  Yeah right!!  I explained nicely to her that it wasn’t nice what she did and how sure I was that she wasn’t going to do that again to her.  I also nicely explained that I didn’t appreciate having to leave the house at that time with Keren and with Ben at home.  I think she got the point.  Oh, and when I write that I explained it nicely, I might have raised my voice just a little bit.  Anyway, she called us when we got home to apologize to Talia!

Today, Friday, not much happened.  We are busy getting ready for Shabbat.  Oh, I kashered liver for the first time.  It was exciting.  I didn’t want to taste them so I don’t know if it’s any good but I am looking forward to liver tonight.  I had no clue what I was doing.  I hope I did it right. 

The kids are outside playing and I see that Keren has tracked mud into the house.  I just finished cleaning up for Shabbat, of course.  Which reminds me, yesterday the cleaning man cleaned and then later in the day Keren spilled yogurt, Ben spilled apple juice and then Keren spilled the spicy sauce that come with the pizza on the floor, on herself and on the kitchen chair.  I have been cleaning my floors since then!!

Shabbat Shalom!