Hmmm.... A Whole Year Gone!

It is hard to believe another year has come and gone, both on the calendar and on my blog. To say the least it has been a whirl wind year with a lot going on. One of the reason for my lack of blog maintenance. The other reason would be that I now write for a living. Nothing glamorous, but still it is a living and I do enjoy it. I write for a hardware site enticing our buyers with everything from new cabinet knobs to new patio furniture and everything in between. I have redone my cabinets about a million times in my head now and have picked out new living room furniture and have found some fairly fabulous lights too. I am also learning all about the brass tacks of do it yourself hardware, such as hinges. Although it can get repetitive, I love my co-workers, my boss and my hours. I work from home, on my time, or sometimes not at home, when I am on the go. So my set up is really ideal. What I have discovered is, it makes we want to branch out in my writing. Which leads me back to my blog. Where I can write, but it doesn't have to be about cabinet knobs and kitchen organizers. So my goal is to get my blog going again and I hope that even the people who now use face book will take the time to read it.

In other news, our kids are doing well in school this year and after a very intense year long effort, two out of three are where they need to be. We are working on the third one. But we are seeing improvements in Hebrew, both in speech and reading, so that is good. We are also enjoying seeing the kids interests blossom. We are currently learning about dinosaurs, volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis. There is also a serious interest in every animal and bug out there, where it lives and what does it eat. I just ran across a book from Ntl. Geographic that is the Encyclopedia of Animals. It has 1,000 animals listed! It is my dream book! They also have great one on Dinosaurs that will be going on the wish list too. Oh we are also into geography. I have a world map up, courtesy Ntl Geographic at kid level and we are constantly pointing out different countries and states on the map. My kids are by no means geniuses, but they are really inquisitive and we are really learning a lot about our world.

As for us, the parents, we are trying to keep up with the kids, work, housework, and everything in between. It is challenging, exhausting and mind boggling all at once. Much of this could be said about any parents. I often exchange kid anecdotes with my friends and sister, all in America and find that things are pretty universal. Our biggest challenge is the language barrier here. Which can put the mind boggling aspect of parenting in the forefront! But with a LOT of help, we get through most days intact!

Much to the dismay of our friends and family, we love being here in Israel despite all the challenges. We have better health care here than we would in America, I love my job and the flexibility I have with it, we love being able to take our kids to the places they are learning about at school and just being here in general. There are also a lot of conveniences when it comes to keeping kosher and being religiously observant as well. Life is not simple or easy here, but I think that is true of anywhere. I don't find living in America to be some great panacea, particularly since our home state has the highest unemployment rate in the country at 12%! Although I do confess to missing my friends and family plus a few really nice conveniences. I think it is all about trade offs and we have given up some major things, but we have also gained some.

Despite what people may think, Israel is not some third world country. Living in the "West Bank" does not mean we live in a shanty, with no heat, electric or running water. We live in a 4 bedroom apartment four floors up basically right next to the full, well stocked, grocery store, very popular not just with us, but for the entire city and surrounding cities as well. Our HMO has a very good office next door with an array of Dr.'s, pediatric care, x-rays, dental and so on, plus other conveniences as well. M goes to school across the street, S is on the school bus and D takes Y to school on most days. We have finally gotten friendly with more of the families here in our area and although we have our bad days, we like to think we are getting along.

For those of you curious about the political situation, please DON'T encourage the !@#$!!!! building freeze! Our rent went up by $200 thanks to the brilliant minds in politics and lest you think you are doing some poor Arab a favor you are not. A majority of the construction workers are Arab. What do you think they did for 10 months? Also the same PA government that is trying to push for a building freeze is also trying to push for PA Arabs to not be allowed to work in Jewish areas. Meaning these people will punished. But there are no jobs to give them if they DO quit! Which just gives the PA more leverage to ask for international aid, meanwhile they have done NOTHING with the current money they have been given. Oh except bomb southern Israel. If you watch Jon Stewart, whom I mostly enjoy, you should be disgusted with his whole shtick on the fact that he is disappointed that Israel would not extend the building freeze. Easy for him to say, he is not being affected by the whole thing! No ever takes the time to speak to the actual people involved. We have plenty of Arab workers here in our community and everyone gets along just fine. In fact I will be forever grateful to the very nice Arab man who replaced my dozen broken eggs with a new carton, even though he was not obligated to even help me. I was not in the store, I had paid and was out in the driveway of the parking lot with all three kids of course, when they were a bit younger, and the eggs fell off the stroller and of course about half of them broke. This guy came out, helped me get things resettled, cross the street and then got me new eggs. He totally deserves a medal. We all know that people deserve to be judged on individual merit, so the story is and should be one person doing another person a favor. However, in media land it is all black and white. I wish they would focus on the everyday people who regardless of which side of the line they are on, just want to get on with their lives. The media never interviews the Israeli Arabs who WANT to be under Israeli rule, because it is much better than the PA. They never interview the Jews who live in the "West Bank" and ask why they are there. Most people move out there for the cheaper cost of living. It is the only way a person can afford a real house with a yard. Most cities don't have the space for that. Just like in America. Imagine that?! So the next time you read the tripe that Fox News or CNN are reporting, consider this; would you want some guy in China telling you where you can and cannot live in your own country? OK enough politics.

And probably enough about everything. I have been interrupted plenty since I started this and finally all the kids are in bed, so I guess it is my turn. Since the little cuties are up around 5:54am, I try to go to bed early too. I am off to watch The Big Bang Theory! Does anyone else watch this? We just got hooked onto it and it is by far my favorite show!

Signing off from sunny Israel! Please G-D Let it RAIN!