Shabbat at home without Eric

Friday afternoon when the kids came home from school I gave them lunch and took them to the beach.  It was great!  We were there for a couple of hours and the kids had a great time.  Keren kept pointing at the water and saying “cold”.  Talia and Ben spent most of the time collecting shells and sea glass.

We got home about an hour before Shabbat and the kids and I showered and got ready for Shabbat. 

I was really nervous that the house would seem very empty without Eric being here but as soon as I lit candles my friend and her kids walked in and we were off and running.  We ate dinner at 6 and the kids laughed that my friend Shlomit made kiddush and I made motzei.  We each sat at the ends of the table and at one point I told her that I felt like we were a lesbian couple.  Anyway, the kids played pretty wildly (my kids’ fault, not hers) and by the time they left it was 8:30 and I was glad to see them go so I could put the kids to sleep and clean the mess up.

Ben has this problem where he keeps thinking that Eric is coming home the next day!! On Thursday he was shocked to hear that Eric wasn’t going to be home for Shabbat even though I told him he wouldn’t.  Then last night he was again shocked to hear that he wasn’t going to be home on Sunday.  I repeated, again, that he would be home on Wednesday, at which time he cried.  So now we are counting down not only the days until my parents come but to the day when Eric comes home too. 

The kids woke me at 8 this morning (I thought we agreed on 8:30 but they remembered and I played with them for a while and then got them ready and out the door to shul.  Talia assumed that we weren’t going to go b/c Eric wasn’t home but I said we should go so we aren’t in the house all morning.  I met them in shul a little while later.

Here is a picture of the thing we built together this morning.  The picture didn’t come out great but it’s a really cool airplane. It took us 40 minutes to build!

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The kids went straight to the Zemel’s house from shul while I took Keren home to pick up some clothes for them to change into.  The weather was cool and foggy when they left the house (actually, it seemed like a cloud settled over Chash) but when I got to shul it was scorching.

After lunch, which was very nice, I took a very tired Keren home to take a nap while Talia and Ben stayed to play.  I was able to relax and read until 4:45!!  Talia, Ben and Eitan actually came back here at 4 but they played nicely outside together with the neighbor and it wasn’t until 4:45 that Talia came in and asked when we were going to the park.  I had originally told them to come home at 4:30 so I could take them to the park, figuring that Keren would be awake by then.  So, I woke Keren up and took the kids plus Eitan and Rena, the next door neighbor, to the park.

When it was time to go home I couldn’t find Rena or Eitan and I panicked.  We must have looked for them for 20 minutes before it started getting dark and I decided to just go home.  When I got home I asked my neighbor if they were at her house and she said yes!!  She told me that Rena told her that I knew they were going home!!  She sent her over to apologize to me b/c I was so upset. 

Anyway, Shabbat ended without any surprises.  It was a very nice day!