That is a sentence I never thought I would use here in Israel, but sure enough it happened! It all just goes to show that the old saying, "never say never, " is true. This morning we woke up at 9:00am to a suprise visit from the snow fairy! Apparantly it had only started snowing at 8:00am, but it was perfect timing for us. We usually never sleep so late, but I guess we must have all sensed that today was a good day to sleep in! D still went into Kollel today, but he went late and brought a couple of friends home for lunch to eat in a warm heated house instead of at the Kollel. Today was a B.Y.O.H (Bring your own heater) day. Most apts. in Israel do not have central heating. Thank you G-d, we do! We are really using it!
To say that Jerusalem is not prepared for snow is an understatement! Everyone is in a panic and apparantly people have been at the stores stocking up like mad for the "big storm." We have had about 6 inche of snow and it looks about like East County (Multnomah County, Gresham, Oregon, U.S.A.) when they get a dusting there. Slushy side roads but clear main roads and side walks filled with wet slushy stuff and lots of mud puddles. Now the response here in Jerusalem to a forecast of snow: school was closed early yesterday (Tuesday) before a flake even touched the ground just because it was a possibility. Today all cars have been asked to stay off the road unless absolutely necessary to go out, there are no busses running today, period; and the taxis although out, are few and far between. Also, all major businesses were closed except grocery stores and mini marts. You would think we were in the mild of a midwest blizzard! Although to be fair the winds are pretty strong and we did see a few downed trees.
Our friend Av has been staying with us this past month as she just got back into the country the end of December. So she helped me bundle of the kids and take them out. We took Y and M out while S got himself ready. We layered them up as much as possible then put plastic bags on their feet. They lasted about 10min, long enough to experience snow and for me to get pictures. I then took S up to the park where we saw a few snowmen and even one with a carrot nose! S loved it and we even took pictures of it. We, and by that I mean, I built a very small baby snowman and then used rocks for eyes and a seed pod for the nose. And although I did not think he was so impressed by it, later I heard him telling his grammy all about it. He also wanted to build a big one but then got distracted by the play equipment which is a big structure made out to be a ship. All in all we lasted about a half hour which is pretty good considering it was raining and we were in tennis shoes. Tonight Av and I went for a walk and it was really pretty to see all the snow on the ground. It deffinitely brought back memories of home and all the cold snowy nights we spent laying bed praying that the snow would last long enough for school to be canceled for the next week!
Since I am up blogging I will take the opportunity to catch up from the past month. I really wanted to do a nice begining of 2008 thoughtful blog, but time and energy seem to be lacking although I did start one. I think it might even be a whole 8 lines. So instead I will try to do a breeze through now.
The end of Dec. Av arrived to stay with us after officialy making Aliyah(becoming an Israeli citizen). She has been a huge help and we have all enjoyed her company even if she does keep reminding us that at the young age of 34+ we are deffinitely "OLD"! When did that happen? We often get a laugh when we are talking about movies and realizing that what she saw at 13 we saw at 28.......wah, wah, wah......But seriously we enjoy having her here and it is working fine. She may be moving in a week and we will miss her, but we also understand the need for her to be on her own and not wanting to live with three wild indians and their chieftans all the time!
The begining of the New Year has had me thinking of goals and life and milestones. Some of this had to do with sitting in a government office for an hour by myself. Hey anything to pass the time!
So I finally decided to make a list of anything I ever wanted to do and catergorized them into long term and short term goals. Like I said, I had a lot of time on my hands. So one of the things I wanted to do was learn how to knit. And guess what? I started! My friend M taught me about two weeks ago and I am trying to find time to work on it. I think I have 8 lines done! I am hoping it will be a scarf for S, if I keep going at the current rate I am sure it will be ready by next winter! The other thing I am doing now is reading Wicked. Although this was not a goal, it is something I started last October, as in 2006, but could not seem to stay awake through. It might have had something to do with being sleep deprived and dealing with 6mo. old twins and a toddler. I am excited to find that it is much better now that I can stay awake! I am also relieved to see that I can still read a book that is considered an actual novel and not just a 200 hundred page romance/mystery novel. I was begining to worry about myself and my intelligence level.... I am about half way through and really enjoying it. It is really interesting to see all the thought that Gregory Maguire(the author) put into this additional story of the Wizard of Oz. I know some of it comes from the entire series by L. Frank Baum, but some is pure creative liscensing from the author and I like it. Speaking of thoughts I will save mine for another time as I have a fussy M right now! No rest for the weary mother of a busy crew!
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