It woulds seem that I am quite behind in my blog so there is no point in trying to catch up, but winter to spring seems to be quite busy for us and that explains the long lapse in writing. So in a nutshell...... the end of January we had my mom and Aunt E here for two and a half weeks which kept us all busy in a good way. We had a trip to Bloomfield Science Museum, the zoo and a girls trip down south to the Dead Sea and Masada and a day trip to Jerusalem. Not to mention day to day routine. I have to say all the trips were great, but the trip down south was fantastic as well as an adventure. First, we took the bus, which is not unusual for us, but in this case I did not know exactly where to get off, but the bus driver was a huge help and we managed to find our hotel with no problem. Plus you have to love Israel, the bus had Wi-Fi, how cool is that?! That night it rained, in fact it poured buckets... so much so that we had continued power outages and the restaurant actually used my flash light to make our salads! Hats off to my husband who insists I always be prepared! The next day we had great weather and headed to Masada, this was one of the last hold outs for the Jews before the Romans invaded and is an amazing site. I really loved this, I have been twice before, but this is the first time where I was not sick and pregnant! Plus the site is a work in progress and they have discovered more since I was there last, about 5 years ago! It was really great!
Moving on, 6 weeks later my in-laws came! Hurray! Another trip to the zoo, we now have armadillo at our zoo and we saw the otters out. This is also a relatively new exhibit and the otters were tucked away when we went before. I also managed to sneak in a trip with my MIL into Jerusalem and out to lunch. A great visit and as when my mom and aunt are here, a HUGE help with the kids!
The week after my in-laws left we had spring vacation. In America this is slack time. In Israel, it is get ready for Passover time! Lots and lots of cleaning, shopping and running errands. Since by Jewish law we are not allowed to keep any type of leavened bread in our homes this includes a mass cleaning to be sure all the coats are cleaned out, stray crumbs are swept out of rooms, and most people do a pretty thorough spring cleaning. We are somewhere in between going crazy and trying to keep it simple. Since most of the country shuts down for the week, this means getting anything you need to do, done ahead of time. Plus preparing for the Passover Seder itself and trying to figure out what to eat for a week that doesn't include bread, pasta, corn, beans and rice. The last three are what we consider Kitnyiot and are not bread, but are considered off the menu for the week of Passover because they could be confused with regular flour and cause a problem. Sephardim (Jews from southern Europe and the Middle East and Africa eat these items). However, our families originate out of Eastern Europe so we are Ashkenazi and don't eat those things. A challenging dietary week for us. We did manage to enjoy ourselves once Passover began though. We were able to visit with friends and take the kids on a hike. Although the end of Passover did bring one challenge. M had gotten lice and some how we missed it! A major infestation and we had to re-clean all the sheets, blankets, etc and vacuum the kids room AGAIN! We felt as though we were getting ready for Passover again. Unfortunately lice is a huge problem in Israel and it is not uncommon. Except in our house! This was a first and hopefully a last! We have been told the tea tree oil in the shampoo will repel the lice from her hair so now all the shampoo bottles are treated with tea tree oil. So hopefully this is put behind us for good!
We have spent the last week trying to get the kids back into the routine of school and it seems to be a bit challenging. Plus apparently spring fever comes with the inability to listen, follow instructions or do anything they are told! However, we did have a break through today. My husband played military commander and gave the boys orders over his ham radio. They responded well to this, M did OK though not the best. They boys, especially S loved it though and now their room is clean. Again!
Though perhaps spring fever has hit us all. I have had a huge dose of writers block this week for work and it is not good. Things I can usually whip up are getting stuck in the back. Hence pulling out my blog. Maybe catching up here will get me jump started there. I sometimes feel I am in the wrong job and instead should be writing a book about my insane life in Israel with my crazy kids and nutty husband! The title would be: My Life As A Cartoon Strip, because sometimes I feel they have been peaking in our windows to get ideas.
As we look forward in our ever crazy life we are preparing for Shavuot when we received the 10 commandments on Mt. Sinai. In between we have Lag B'Omer and the twins b-day. Somehow they have made it to 5 and once again we are all here to tell the tale! In two months M is out of school for the summer and then I will have to decide what to do with her until the boys get out! She is now beyond entertaining herself, or perhaps her idea of entertainment is to drive me crazy! Not so good for either of us.
So this blog is a bit longer than intended and bit more detailed update than intended, but perhaps it will do me good. I would love to comment on life in general now, but I am afraid it will bore everyone to bits. So perhaps tomorrow I will manage again.
TTFN!
No comments:
Post a Comment