Well we are finally moved, but I wont say settled although we are getting there. We have moved for the 3rd time this year. Hopefullly this will be our last for a while. We are now living 40min. SW of Jerusalem. We are back out in the "disputed West Bank" but it doesnt feel like it. It is a quick trip to Jerusalem, the busses run every 20min. and we live in a city that has its own intercity bus system. The town is about 37,000 and growing by the minute. We live in a new section that is still being developed and in fact our building is not even finished yet and we are still awaiting the arrival of a few of the neighbors. Living here is once again different from every place else have lived in Israel. First we live in a building that has one entrance, we used to have our own entrance. And although technically it has fewer units than in Jerusalem, we went from 20-8, because it is a building instead of 2 long rows of apts. it feels bigger and closer living space. We are also on one long street with all buildings and a row behind us too. Which is similar to our Karnei set up but their were only 4 units to a building there and again everyone had their own entrance. Still we our apt. is brand new and is 4 bedrooms plus a storage closet on the floor below and we have some green space downstairs and a nice big patio. Moving into a brandnew place has had its challenges too though. Like the fact that we had to have the plumbing fixed becaues if we ran the washing machine or drained the bath tub, everything flooded. Fortunately it got taken care of pretty quickly. There are also no freebies. No left over closets (In Israel, there are not the traditional American closets with a door and bar or a walk-in. Here we have to buy something free standing that is a pain to take down and put back together again. Ours needs to be re-assmebled and I feel like humpty dumpty right now....) And since the kitchen is brand new it only comes with the bottom row of cabinets. That means that we need to get more.
However, since it is new, it doesnt look like a 70's throwback, everything is nice and new and it is had a lot of natural light. Yeah! And it is big!
S is in school and it sounds like he is making friends already. They are very patient with his lack of hebrew and I have been told by another parent that use the bi-lingual kids to translate for him. We are very please with his teachers and are happy to have someone so willing to work with us and him.
We made it through a very busy Purim. Purim is the story of Queen Esther and Mordecai who save the Jewish people from Hamans evil plot to destroy the Jews. It is a big dress up holiday, although we did not dress up this year, just the kids. Purim is a very joyous holiday with lots of eating and dressing up. We also trade baskets of food and nosh designed to add joy to a persons Purim Meal. I managed to make homemade cookies, but not the challah I hoped to. Hopefully we will have photos posted soon. S went as Peter Pan and Y and M went as clowns. We spent part in our new home which was very nice and we got meet some people in the neighborhood. Then for second day which is pretty much only celebrated in Jerusalem we went in and had Purim meal with our previous neighbors from our Jerusalem neighborhood. We really had a good time and we had a chance to also visit with some other friends. We got home around midnight and a good time was had by all!
We are now gearing up for Pesach which will begin at the end of the week. We have been frantically trying to finish unpacking and clean and finish eating all our bread, pasta, etc. in order to get the house cleaned and ready for Pesach. We will be having our friends from Tsfat this year. They recently moved to Modiin and so now we are hosting instead of going to them. We are really looking forward to it. Pesach, otherwise known as Passover, is when the Jews were brought our of Egypt and freed from being slaves by Pharaoh. This begins the saga of crossing the Red Sea, spending 40 years in the dessert and receiving the 10 commandments, before finally being let into Israel. Because the Jews fled Egypt in the night and quickly the bread did not rise, but turned into crackers. To commemerate this we eat on unlevened things for a week straight. So for carb addicts like me, it is a loooong week. We try not have it in our homes, we dont eat it and we dont buy it. This means no pasta, bread, donuts, cookies, cake, etc. unless itis made with matzoh meal or potato flour. We basically make do with out. we eat a lot of meat, fruit and veggies and dairy. For those who are considered Ashkenazi, which means they hail from Eastern Europe we also hold no, beans or corn, so no peanutbutter and well no corn. It is a looooong week in our house. We are sacrificing and scarfing down all the GS cookies and cadburry mini eggs my mom just sent in a group effort to get rid of such things from our house! Since most candy in the US is made with cornsyrup that is also forbidden for the week. Fortunately there are a lot of replacements though.
As side from getting moved, settled and getting S into school we are doing fine. We have had guests just about every shabbos we have been here which has been wonderful, it has given us a chance to catch up with a few people we have not seen in a while.
All 3 monkeys have had growth spurts and we will be shoe shopping during Pesach vacation. S out grew his just in time to start school and he looks like a pauper as his toes are practically sticking out! Everyone seems to have gotten taller too....We are thankful for the stock pile of hand-me downs we have so that we can keep up with our little bean sprouts! They are also getting smarter by the minute. S has mastered the refrigerator lock like a pro, and the dynamic duo have figured out how to use a chair to get into just about anything you can imagine. We thought taller counters would solve a lot of problems, but the kids just got smarter! It is hard to believe that the wonder twins will be celebrating birthday #2 soon. Y still thrives on being a baby and is our resident finger sucker and snuggler. M is more independent like her oldest brother and is enjoying being a girl and being such a big one at that! Speaking of independance....Now we know that S has a good sense of direction, but he really proved it when I was late to pick him up one day and I got there and he was gone. After an organzied search by the school and a call to the "bus driver" (a mini van that can be arranged to take kids to and from school)to make sure he did not go home that way, we found him at home waiting for me. This is not a walk across the street. His school is actually a good 20-25min. walk for an average adult. He made it in 25! When I pick him up, he is always too tired to walk and we always take the city bus home. What is really amazing is that he did not dawdle or stop to look at anything, he just went home. Fortunately D was there waiting for him and he wanted to know where I was and why I went to pick him up.......Now he takes the Cherry van (It is a maroon colored mini-van) home from school like a majority of the other kids.
I am also excited to announce that my sister is expecting and there will be another little boy on the Schulz side of the family. Leaving our little M as the reigning princess. We are most excited to welcome baby Najdek in August. I think it is great that our nephew will have a sibling and that my sister will experience that endless of joy of two children. Nothing like the sounds of..."No, mine!, You play with that! Leave me alone!" and other joyous sounds of sibling rivalry. :) Revenge will be mine.......all mine......ha ha ha(read evil laugh). Seriously, I love my sister and I just would not want to be the only one to know that joy of having more than one kid under the roof. Besides I am sure she will do great!
In other upcoming news, my in-laws will be here begining of May and we are looking forward to their upcoming visit. S is particularly excited to see his Grammy as they have begun having little baking sessions when she is here. Grandpa will also be making appearance this spring which will be nice. He usually only comes once a year in the fall, so we are happy to see him this spring too. M will be happy to have her rocking chair buddy here again too! Then we will be having a house guest for about 6 weeks from May to mid-June. Dit will be doing a number of things while she is camped out under our roof, one of which is to work with autistic children, something she would like to proffesionaly. So we plan to see quite a bit of Av at the same time.
And currently during Pesach vacation we hope to get a visit in to our friends down south who live on a moshave and have enough animals to constitute their own petting zoo. Complete with goats, chickens, dogs and cats. We know them our days in Karnei and we look forward to seeing them soon. We also hope to get up North this spring to see the new home of our friends Shosh and kids. Which is about 10min north of Tsfat.
This covers everything through the end of June so if you dont hear from again until then you will know why!
Chag Semeach to those who celebrate Pesach and Happy Spring to rest of you!
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