I did entitle this blog "The Israel Adventure". Yep. That's a good name for it, alright!
Israel is in it's 6th day of Operation Pillar of Cloud - fighting Hamas after how many? - SEVEN years did someone say? - of daily rocket attacks on our southern cities. Enough is enough. Gilad Shalit is no longer being held captive there and there is no longer any reason NOT to do something to stop the attacks. I still wonder what took us so long to spring into action.....
I just got back from the U.S. a month ago (more about that in another post) and while I was there I was trying not to think about the possibility that "something" would happen while I was there with a husband and 3 kids here and of me not being able to get home. Thankfully, it didn't happen while I was so far away but it sure is happening now!
We and all our friends knew that we would all be in range "next time around" and sure enough we are which is a first. Thankfully, we've still been getting uninterrupted nights' sleep and haven't had ONE air raid siren alert yet. However, we have been hearing plenty of "booms" throughout the last 6 days which I can only assume is our Iron Dome anti-missile defense system intercepting the rockets that were headed our way.
Last Thursday night I left work at 4:45 with a co-worker and just as we left the building we heard 3 booms. We looked up in the sky and saw three black puffs of smoke hanging in the air basically right over our heads. O-KAAAAAAAAAY! This isn't something happening in "the south" anymore. This isn't fun and games. This is REAL. Now when I'm driving, my eyes are scanning the sky and my heart leaps at every bird flapping by until I realize it's JUST a bird.
On Friday, Y said to me, "Ima, the principal came into our class and told us the bomb shelter was open and if we have time we should run there if there's a siren but if not we should find a wall and lie down next to it with our hands over our heads. If a bomb goes "pop" on me, what good is having my hands over my head going to do?" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Why does an 8-year-old have to think these things??? Nuts. Just nuts. But she's taking it very much in stride.
My prayer is that we do NOT give up before the job is finished, that we do NOT cave in to pressure. Otherwise we'll be in the same or worse situation a few years down the road. I also hope they don't jump the gun and send in the ground troups prematurely. IMO, they can do a hell of a lot more damage from the air without endangering anyone. They should send in the ground troups at the end to sweep up the pieces when it's all over.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Diary of an Aliyah-nik blog
I stumbled across this blog today by chance called Diary of an Aliyah-nik which looks wonderful and I look forward to perusing it more in depth. Many of her posts look good but in particular her post from August 28th jumped up and bit me on the tush. I couldn't agree with her more and I wanted to stand up on the table and CHEER after reading it. Good for her! Take a look.....
Thursday, August 30, 2012
A New School Year Begins
After an eventful, fun-filled summer, Israeli kids started back to school on August 27th - 5 days earlier than the usual September 1st start date. This, obviously, made many working parents (except for me) happy, as it meant 5 fewer days that they had to scramble to find and pay for child care coverage.
In our house, we now have an 11th grader, 3rd grader and E started in a new gan which, happily, is walking distance from home, unlike the gan he was in for the past 2 years. The first day of gan he walked in like he owned the place and didn't cry at all but on every subsequent morning he has been clingy and cried. It's ok. I know it's a phase and he'll get used to it but it does send me off to work with a not-very-nice feeling in my tummy knowing I've left him there crying.
After the craziness of this morning, I've decided I have to get up a bit earlier at 6 am and get myself ready first otherwise it ain't gonna happen.
Apropo of which, I received by email these tips from the Sara Silber Psychological-Educational Clinic in Raanana for how to get your child organized for school. I thought there were some very good ideas here so I'm passing it along
1) Color code the child's schedule and subject materials with specifically colored covers and stickers. If math is red then all math books, notebooks, and workbooks should either be covered with red book covers or have a big red sticker on them. If there are 4 math items to be taken to school then write the number 4 on each item so that the child knows that when he has to pack up math materials he has to count 4 items . On the child's chart of his schedule of subjects, the subject of math should also be outlined in red so that he knows that he has to pack all the red items.
2) Put in your child's schoolbag 2 differently colored big folders. One will say on it "take home and show parents". The other will say on it "give to teacher". Explain to your child to put in the first envelope all the notes that he has to show parents regarding school trips, money requested, etc. In the second folder he puts completed assignments, and the envelopes containing the signed letters, money, etc that he has to give back to teacher. For kids who do not yet read put a photo of yourselves on the show parents folder to help them differentiate. This will serve other purposes too as the child can look at it if
missing you during the school day.
3) Child should have a big bulletin board in his room for notices he needs to refer to such as birthday party invites, school trips info, etc. You can make vertical divisions with strips of colored paper on the bulletin board to demarcate sections of now, this week,next week,this month, and child adjusts the position of notices with the thumb tacks as time goes by and he sees what he has to attend to now.
4) Teach your child how to make lists and checklists for daily routines and place them in strategic spots. Also, children need to be taught how to manage a diary efficiently and how to organize their belongings. If you yourself are not an organized person it will be difficult for you to teach your children so get someone else to help you with this. Organizational skills improve self-confidence and will help your child succeed in school.
5) Teach your child early on how to wake himself up with his own alarm clock and to get ready on his own with minimum physical assistance. Give lots of reinforcement for being ready on time for
school. Good habits should be instilled early.
6) Morning time is usually very hectic so anything that can be done the day before should be. This includes preparation of sandwich, fruit, and water. Each child should have his personal colored bin in the fridge for his own items. Child can help prepare this himself when all the food is out on the table at dinnertime, just supply the baggies and give some guidance. Also to be prepared the night before are the child's schoolbag, according to the color-coded system outlined above, and the child's clothes, which he can lay out himself. All this should be done before the child is allowed to watch his last television show for the day.
7) Make sure your child gets to bed at a reasonable time for her age and has available a nutritious breakfast. If she is not hungry in the morning then give a fruit drink and healthy snacks to eat on
the way or at school.
8) Be available when your child returns home to see her mood, give emotional support and troubleshoot any difficulties early on. If you are a working mom and are not home when the child returns, then give this needed attention after returning home. Children will not open up as readily on the telephone and you cannot see the child's body language and facial cues so it is best to have your conversations with your child in person than trying to do it from the office by phone. Small problems can become bigger problems if not attended to.
In our house, we now have an 11th grader, 3rd grader and E started in a new gan which, happily, is walking distance from home, unlike the gan he was in for the past 2 years. The first day of gan he walked in like he owned the place and didn't cry at all but on every subsequent morning he has been clingy and cried. It's ok. I know it's a phase and he'll get used to it but it does send me off to work with a not-very-nice feeling in my tummy knowing I've left him there crying.
After the craziness of this morning, I've decided I have to get up a bit earlier at 6 am and get myself ready first otherwise it ain't gonna happen.
Apropo of which, I received by email these tips from the Sara Silber Psychological-Educational Clinic in Raanana for how to get your child organized for school. I thought there were some very good ideas here so I'm passing it along
1) Color code the child's schedule and subject materials with specifically colored covers and stickers. If math is red then all math books, notebooks, and workbooks should either be covered with red book covers or have a big red sticker on them. If there are 4 math items to be taken to school then write the number 4 on each item so that the child knows that when he has to pack up math materials he has to count 4 items . On the child's chart of his schedule of subjects, the subject of math should also be outlined in red so that he knows that he has to pack all the red items.
2) Put in your child's schoolbag 2 differently colored big folders. One will say on it "take home and show parents". The other will say on it "give to teacher". Explain to your child to put in the first envelope all the notes that he has to show parents regarding school trips, money requested, etc. In the second folder he puts completed assignments, and the envelopes containing the signed letters, money, etc that he has to give back to teacher. For kids who do not yet read put a photo of yourselves on the show parents folder to help them differentiate. This will serve other purposes too as the child can look at it if
missing you during the school day.
3) Child should have a big bulletin board in his room for notices he needs to refer to such as birthday party invites, school trips info, etc. You can make vertical divisions with strips of colored paper on the bulletin board to demarcate sections of now, this week,next week,this month, and child adjusts the position of notices with the thumb tacks as time goes by and he sees what he has to attend to now.
4) Teach your child how to make lists and checklists for daily routines and place them in strategic spots. Also, children need to be taught how to manage a diary efficiently and how to organize their belongings. If you yourself are not an organized person it will be difficult for you to teach your children so get someone else to help you with this. Organizational skills improve self-confidence and will help your child succeed in school.
5) Teach your child early on how to wake himself up with his own alarm clock and to get ready on his own with minimum physical assistance. Give lots of reinforcement for being ready on time for
school. Good habits should be instilled early.
6) Morning time is usually very hectic so anything that can be done the day before should be. This includes preparation of sandwich, fruit, and water. Each child should have his personal colored bin in the fridge for his own items. Child can help prepare this himself when all the food is out on the table at dinnertime, just supply the baggies and give some guidance. Also to be prepared the night before are the child's schoolbag, according to the color-coded system outlined above, and the child's clothes, which he can lay out himself. All this should be done before the child is allowed to watch his last television show for the day.
7) Make sure your child gets to bed at a reasonable time for her age and has available a nutritious breakfast. If she is not hungry in the morning then give a fruit drink and healthy snacks to eat on
the way or at school.
8) Be available when your child returns home to see her mood, give emotional support and troubleshoot any difficulties early on. If you are a working mom and are not home when the child returns, then give this needed attention after returning home. Children will not open up as readily on the telephone and you cannot see the child's body language and facial cues so it is best to have your conversations with your child in person than trying to do it from the office by phone. Small problems can become bigger problems if not attended to.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Too Pooped to Pop
I feel like so much has happened, my days have been full to overflowing, stress levels have been high and I've gotten out of the sshhhhvung of writing. I've been too pooped to pop.
Things at home have been zoo-y as usual. I thought with the start of the summer vacation the pace would slow. Haha. Silly me. Y and E are in "camp" for 3 weeks - every day until 13:00. After that I'm working every other day so as to share the load of entertaining the kids as fairly as possible with DH. I did the same last summer and it worked out very well.
About 3 weeks ago DH said, "Let's sell this apartment and look for something bigger." He didn't have to tell me twice! We started looking for a 4 bedroom place (the idea being that one room with become an office for him) about 3 weeks ago - 1-5 apartments per day! Don't ask me how we've found the time for this on top of everything else we have to juggle. We found something relatively quickly that we all liked and made an offer that was accepted however the seller is turning out to be a real stinker. Luckily we haven't signed anything yet. DH has a meeting at 10 a.m. this morning with the seller and his lawyer, our lawyer and the agent to try to progress the deal but neither of us have high hopes. DH's background is property evaluation and he tried being a real estate agent here for about 4 years before he got into translations so he definitely knows properties and what to look (out) for. The seller told us he'd replumbed the entire apartment and after DH brought someone in to check, it turned out he hadn't. The seller is also continuing to advertise the place for sale through a different real estate agency than the one we found it through AND he's also advertised it for sale himself on an internet message board. I suppose until we've signed a contract he's entitled legally to continue to advertise but it's not decent IMO and he's the sort that would sell it out from under our noses if someone came along who offered him more. I told DH to do his best in the meeting but not to act desperate. If the answer is no, then it's no and we'll keep looking. We have a young couple coming tonight to take a 2nd look at our place so maybe that's a good sign? All of this has been taking up a lot of time and energy. It's fun looking at places, seeing what's out there, what the possibilities are, what people have done to their places.
During June, Y was enrolled in two extracurricular activities - gymnastics, which she'd been doing since the start of the year, and in June she added soccer. Both activities are offered by the community center which is directly opposite our building. After she said she wanted to try soccer (there are no all girl teams around here that I'm aware of) I took her for a trial lesson. She was the only girl there! I thought that would be a deterrent. She was a bit shy about it at first but I told her how special it was and that she should show those boys what she could do! After that trial lesson she said she wanted to enroll so we signed her up for the last month. And she wants to carry on with only soccer next year too. This kid is NOT lacking in self-confidence in the least. She said, "Gymnastics is boring. I need something with action!" LOL She's very fast and very athletic but very girly at the same time. It's a scream watching skinny, dainty, feminine her rushing around after that ball in her flowery jeans and earrings and bows in her hair next to all the noisy, dirty, smelly little boys. But whatever. If she's ok with it, so am I. She'll tell me when she's had enough for whatever reason.
I had about 2 months of atomic stress at work. Everything got dumped on me at once, huge projects, everything was urgent, deadlines. I flipped out at my boss about it once or twice even. I was close to just giving up. But it's slowed down dramatically. Probably because things generally go quiet once the summer vacation begins. The whole country is on vacation it seems. My sense is that under the surface things in the company are going downhill. The frustration level in all the employees over the workload seems to be very high. Yesterday another person in management announced that she was leaving which took a lot of people by surprise. And I've heard rumors that others are also unhappy and thinking of leaving. I don't want to leave but it may come to that. I don't know. By and large, I'm very happy here. I feel they appreciate me and that I have quite a lot of autonomy. I come, do my work and they leave me alone. Which is how it should be. No one is standing over me with a stop watch. If I have a sick kid or have a doctor's appointment or need to go to the bank before work, no one makes faces about it. There are only 3 men in the company. The rest are women with young kids for the most part. So it's just a given that those kinds of situations are going to come up. And somehow it works. It's very refreshing. I guess time will tell.
T told me that she wanted to work this summer. A lot of the kids in her class have jobs of one sort or another. She got herself hired waiting tables at a wedding hall in town. She went for two nights of training and then the manager didn't assign her a night to actually work so I think she's given up on that idea. Legal working age is 16 which she isn't yet so maybe that's why. In any case, she's been working a lot as a mother's helper for a new, young friend of mine who just had her 2nd baby. T is AMAZING with little kids and babies - a real natural. So this is keeping her very busy and she's making some money that way which is good. I'm happy to see her putting in some effort and DOING something with herself rather than spending the summer in front of the TV and computer and moaning about how bored she is.
E's two new words this week were "halleluyah" and "confused". LOL. In case you're wondering WHY "halleluyah", let me explain. DH was listening to a piece of classical music in which the word "halleluyah" appeared. DH asked E if he could say "halleluyeh". E made a few unsuccessful attempts. So then DH broke the word down into syllables for him and he got it perfectly. So then he went around saying "halleluyah" for the rest of the day. So funny. Also, he is a huge fan of chocolate which until recently has come out as "chok-at". Then last Saturday morning we were discussing chocolate and all of a sudden I saw the realization dawn on his face that "hey, there's an 'L' in there!". So he made a huge, conscious effort to put the "L" in there but he put it in the wrong place so now the word comes out as "CHLOK-at". LOL.
The weather here has finally turned H.O.T. and H.U.M.I.D. Big ewwwww! Hot I love. Humid? Mmmmmm. NOT so much. You want to know how hot hell is? Just come to Israel in July-August! We try not to run the a/c very much - too expensive - so we end up turning it on around 8 pm when we're all finally home to benefit from it and we turn it off around 11 pm. Just enough to allow everyone to get to sleep.
DH's uncle (Mom's brother) passed away in England just over a week ago on the same day that DH's sister had invited everyone to her house for her birthday party. The party got cancelled, of course. There were three siblings - DH's Mom and her brother and sister. DH's mom is now the last one left and she is the oldest of the 3. She will be 89 in October and she is still quite healthy and "with it" although getting hard of hearing. DH and Y stayed with his uncle when they were in England in February. Lucky they went then and saw him! DHwas always very close with this uncle so it was a bit hard for him.
My trip to the U.S. is coming up - October 9. I can't wait. Two whole weeks to myself! It's going to be an INTENSE trip I think but I hope it will be good. I hope it won't be so jam packed with running and doing and seeing that it flies by in a blur and I will hardly feel like I've been away.
Anyway, not much else new here. Just trying to stay COOL and get through the summer vacation in a way that resembles sanity. And find an apartment to buy....
Things at home have been zoo-y as usual. I thought with the start of the summer vacation the pace would slow. Haha. Silly me. Y and E are in "camp" for 3 weeks - every day until 13:00. After that I'm working every other day so as to share the load of entertaining the kids as fairly as possible with DH. I did the same last summer and it worked out very well.
About 3 weeks ago DH said, "Let's sell this apartment and look for something bigger." He didn't have to tell me twice! We started looking for a 4 bedroom place (the idea being that one room with become an office for him) about 3 weeks ago - 1-5 apartments per day! Don't ask me how we've found the time for this on top of everything else we have to juggle. We found something relatively quickly that we all liked and made an offer that was accepted however the seller is turning out to be a real stinker. Luckily we haven't signed anything yet. DH has a meeting at 10 a.m. this morning with the seller and his lawyer, our lawyer and the agent to try to progress the deal but neither of us have high hopes. DH's background is property evaluation and he tried being a real estate agent here for about 4 years before he got into translations so he definitely knows properties and what to look (out) for. The seller told us he'd replumbed the entire apartment and after DH brought someone in to check, it turned out he hadn't. The seller is also continuing to advertise the place for sale through a different real estate agency than the one we found it through AND he's also advertised it for sale himself on an internet message board. I suppose until we've signed a contract he's entitled legally to continue to advertise but it's not decent IMO and he's the sort that would sell it out from under our noses if someone came along who offered him more. I told DH to do his best in the meeting but not to act desperate. If the answer is no, then it's no and we'll keep looking. We have a young couple coming tonight to take a 2nd look at our place so maybe that's a good sign? All of this has been taking up a lot of time and energy. It's fun looking at places, seeing what's out there, what the possibilities are, what people have done to their places.
During June, Y was enrolled in two extracurricular activities - gymnastics, which she'd been doing since the start of the year, and in June she added soccer. Both activities are offered by the community center which is directly opposite our building. After she said she wanted to try soccer (there are no all girl teams around here that I'm aware of) I took her for a trial lesson. She was the only girl there! I thought that would be a deterrent. She was a bit shy about it at first but I told her how special it was and that she should show those boys what she could do! After that trial lesson she said she wanted to enroll so we signed her up for the last month. And she wants to carry on with only soccer next year too. This kid is NOT lacking in self-confidence in the least. She said, "Gymnastics is boring. I need something with action!" LOL She's very fast and very athletic but very girly at the same time. It's a scream watching skinny, dainty, feminine her rushing around after that ball in her flowery jeans and earrings and bows in her hair next to all the noisy, dirty, smelly little boys. But whatever. If she's ok with it, so am I. She'll tell me when she's had enough for whatever reason.
I had about 2 months of atomic stress at work. Everything got dumped on me at once, huge projects, everything was urgent, deadlines. I flipped out at my boss about it once or twice even. I was close to just giving up. But it's slowed down dramatically. Probably because things generally go quiet once the summer vacation begins. The whole country is on vacation it seems. My sense is that under the surface things in the company are going downhill. The frustration level in all the employees over the workload seems to be very high. Yesterday another person in management announced that she was leaving which took a lot of people by surprise. And I've heard rumors that others are also unhappy and thinking of leaving. I don't want to leave but it may come to that. I don't know. By and large, I'm very happy here. I feel they appreciate me and that I have quite a lot of autonomy. I come, do my work and they leave me alone. Which is how it should be. No one is standing over me with a stop watch. If I have a sick kid or have a doctor's appointment or need to go to the bank before work, no one makes faces about it. There are only 3 men in the company. The rest are women with young kids for the most part. So it's just a given that those kinds of situations are going to come up. And somehow it works. It's very refreshing. I guess time will tell.
T told me that she wanted to work this summer. A lot of the kids in her class have jobs of one sort or another. She got herself hired waiting tables at a wedding hall in town. She went for two nights of training and then the manager didn't assign her a night to actually work so I think she's given up on that idea. Legal working age is 16 which she isn't yet so maybe that's why. In any case, she's been working a lot as a mother's helper for a new, young friend of mine who just had her 2nd baby. T is AMAZING with little kids and babies - a real natural. So this is keeping her very busy and she's making some money that way which is good. I'm happy to see her putting in some effort and DOING something with herself rather than spending the summer in front of the TV and computer and moaning about how bored she is.
E's two new words this week were "halleluyah" and "confused". LOL. In case you're wondering WHY "halleluyah", let me explain. DH was listening to a piece of classical music in which the word "halleluyah" appeared. DH asked E if he could say "halleluyeh". E made a few unsuccessful attempts. So then DH broke the word down into syllables for him and he got it perfectly. So then he went around saying "halleluyah" for the rest of the day. So funny. Also, he is a huge fan of chocolate which until recently has come out as "chok-at". Then last Saturday morning we were discussing chocolate and all of a sudden I saw the realization dawn on his face that "hey, there's an 'L' in there!". So he made a huge, conscious effort to put the "L" in there but he put it in the wrong place so now the word comes out as "CHLOK-at". LOL.
The weather here has finally turned H.O.T. and H.U.M.I.D. Big ewwwww! Hot I love. Humid? Mmmmmm. NOT so much. You want to know how hot hell is? Just come to Israel in July-August! We try not to run the a/c very much - too expensive - so we end up turning it on around 8 pm when we're all finally home to benefit from it and we turn it off around 11 pm. Just enough to allow everyone to get to sleep.
DH's uncle (Mom's brother) passed away in England just over a week ago on the same day that DH's sister had invited everyone to her house for her birthday party. The party got cancelled, of course. There were three siblings - DH's Mom and her brother and sister. DH's mom is now the last one left and she is the oldest of the 3. She will be 89 in October and she is still quite healthy and "with it" although getting hard of hearing. DH and Y stayed with his uncle when they were in England in February. Lucky they went then and saw him! DHwas always very close with this uncle so it was a bit hard for him.
My trip to the U.S. is coming up - October 9. I can't wait. Two whole weeks to myself! It's going to be an INTENSE trip I think but I hope it will be good. I hope it won't be so jam packed with running and doing and seeing that it flies by in a blur and I will hardly feel like I've been away.
Anyway, not much else new here. Just trying to stay COOL and get through the summer vacation in a way that resembles sanity. And find an apartment to buy....
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Cracking Up
I seriously feel like I'm cracking up. SO stressed! Let's start off with the fact that my schedule after work every day this week has been INSANE and looks like it will be that way until the end of the month. Not a second to myself except late at night when I'm exhausted.
I'm venting here ok?
How is a working Mom with 2 little kids at home supposed to get a minute alone? When are we supposed to get recreation time either alone or as a family? My life seems to be full of "have tos" and I'm totally beyond FED UP. It's either the work week or Friday/Shabbat which isn't restful by any stretch of the imagination. It's one long marathon. Something to be "got through". When do we have time to go as a family and visit friends during the week? When do we have time to take a day trip up north or down south? In the lunch room at work on Sunday I am regaled with stories of what everyone did over the weekend: "Oh we went hiking in Nachal X with the kids on Shabbat and the spring flowers were so beautiful!" one woman gushes. Another woman, "We took the kids to Zoo Such and Such!" or "We went scuba diving in Eilat!" I also would like to be able to come back with stories about the adventures we had over the weekend. Nobody wants to hear, "Well, we went to shul. Again. We had friends over for lunch. Again. I took a nap. Again." Boooooorrring!
This Friday I just. could. not. deal. and said to hell with the cooking and cleaning. Just........NO! I ain't doin' it. After I dropped the kids off at gan and school, I went to the beach for 2 1/2 hours until I had to pick E up from gan. It was sorely needed and far too short and just left me feeling resentful that these moments of recreation are taken on stolen time and are so rushed and that Shabbat impinges on them. HAVE TO rush back to get the cleaning and cooking done. HAVE TO rush back because Shabbat is coming. I'm ashamed to say it but I'm really having a hard time with this right now. I came home and told DH, "This Shabbat thing is NOT NORMAL. It's either work or Shabbat, Shabbat or work. No Sunday even where we can take a deep breath - where I can do something FOR MYSELF - and recover from Shabbat before jumping back into the work week. Work isn't about ME. It's about me jumping through hoops for someone else. Shabbat isn't about me. It's about Hashem. The I, the ME, has nowhere to express itself and just be, just do something purely for enjoyment's sake."
For an adventurous, creative person like me, the monotony of the Friday routine is just a killer. A KILLER.
Then there's work......
I'm losing my motivation at work fast. Lately I've been very involved in the translation process (Hebrew to English ) of no less than 130 documents. I'm the contact person for the person who actually does the translation. I send them to him, he translates, sends them back to me, I have to check the English translation against the original Hebrew, mark any corrections or mistakes I find with "track changes" in WORD and send them back to him to either accept my corrections or not. If he doesn't then we have this back-and-forth by phone or email about it until we agree. Fine. So yesterday I sent him 9 WORD documents with small corrections marked with tracking that I wanted him to accept. Today he sends me back those exact same 9 files which the tracked changes still marked in red. When I expressed surprise, he said, "Oh yeah. I had a teleconference about it with Orly and Tamar in your company and this is what was agreed." I wrote him back and ccd those two women he'd referred to and I said to him, "No one informed me as to what was agreed in the conference call." This Orly jumped all over me about "airing the company's dirty laundry" and that if I have questions or need a clarification I need to inquire internally. OK. Fair enough. I said ok and apologized to her. I did tell her that it really bothers me that I have to hear from her THROUGH HIM what the outcome of the conference call was. Like, until now all my dealings with him have been handled one way and then all of a sudden he's telling me, "Noooooo, your people told me that now it has to be done THIS way." He sounded shocked - and rightly so - that I wasn't in the loop. I felt like such an idiot. I told this Orly that I have NO problem switching my modus operandi with our translation people but I just need to know what the new rules are and NOT hear it from someone outside the company. So that set me off to a bad start today. I was ticked.
Then, for a different study I'm responsible for administering, there are these bi-weekly T/Cs that are recorded and then the next day I listen to the recording and transcribe the meeting minutes. It's a PAIN IN THE BUTT but hopefully this won't be going on much longer. Not sure. Anyway, I spent TWO HOURS on Thursday transcribing, every minute of it is torture and then another girl came into my office and asked me to quickly help her edit a document of hers and in doing so she shut down my document with the meeting minutes that I'd worked on for two hours. I lost the whole thing. It's my fault for not saving it before starting to type. But still. I hate when people come in and help themselves to my computer even if I'm sitting right here. I wanted to STRANGLE her but I had to be nice and say, "Don't worry about it. It doesn't matter. I'll just spend ANOTHER TWO HOURS on Sunday redoing the WHOLE BLOODY THING!" I was this close to crying. Especially after the thing about the translator. I feel like I got NOTHING done at work Thursday. Just one of those awful, awful days.
Don't get me wrong. It's a good company - a lot going for it - and good people but like I've been saying for a few weeks now, someone is starting to make some really bad management decisions and it's affecting not just me badly. It's really hard to keep the motivation up long-term under these conditions. I wish I could quit. I have to close my eyes a few times a day and grit my teeth and just say thank you that I even have a job. I spent 2 years at home under atomic financial pressure and that was enough to last me the rest of my life.
Y has an end of year school party to go to for which the kids have to wear ALL black from head to toe which means I have to rush out and buy her black everything - more stress - which she'll never wear again. (I do NOT dress my kids in black! Why? Who died?)
Y has been taking gynmastics two times a week this year. Then recently she said she's bored with it and wants to try soccer. So we stupidly signed her up for soccer in addition to gymnastics through the end of this month. Which means she has an after-school activity that she has to be schlepped to FOUR nights a week! WHAT were we thinking???
Then on the 28th she has an end of year party for her gynmastics class AND the end of year party for soccer was also scheduled for the same night so we told her she has to go to the gymnastics party since she's invested a lot more time in gymnastics this year.
But wait. It gets better. DH popped me a message on Skype today that we have been invited to his sister's house, also on the evening of the 28th, to help her celebrate her birthday! I nearly lost it. You've GOT to be joking! I desperately need to clear my schedule, not double book on the same night!
T's cousin is having his Bar Mitzvah next Shabbat so she wants to go out to buy a new outfit for it. I seriously have ZERO time to go shopping with her and the thought of dragging E with us while we do it doesn't bear thinking about. I told her last night she should go shopping with a girlfriend, find something nice and ask the store to hold it for her and I will go in a pay for it. I told her to take a picture of whatever it is she finds to show me when she gets home. We'll see if she remembers that bit.
I feel like crying just thinking how frazzling these next two weeks are going to be..........I haven't even told you the half of it but.......duty calls.
I'm venting here ok?
How is a working Mom with 2 little kids at home supposed to get a minute alone? When are we supposed to get recreation time either alone or as a family? My life seems to be full of "have tos" and I'm totally beyond FED UP. It's either the work week or Friday/Shabbat which isn't restful by any stretch of the imagination. It's one long marathon. Something to be "got through". When do we have time to go as a family and visit friends during the week? When do we have time to take a day trip up north or down south? In the lunch room at work on Sunday I am regaled with stories of what everyone did over the weekend: "Oh we went hiking in Nachal X with the kids on Shabbat and the spring flowers were so beautiful!" one woman gushes. Another woman, "We took the kids to Zoo Such and Such!" or "We went scuba diving in Eilat!" I also would like to be able to come back with stories about the adventures we had over the weekend. Nobody wants to hear, "Well, we went to shul. Again. We had friends over for lunch. Again. I took a nap. Again." Boooooorrring!
This Friday I just. could. not. deal. and said to hell with the cooking and cleaning. Just........NO! I ain't doin' it. After I dropped the kids off at gan and school, I went to the beach for 2 1/2 hours until I had to pick E up from gan. It was sorely needed and far too short and just left me feeling resentful that these moments of recreation are taken on stolen time and are so rushed and that Shabbat impinges on them. HAVE TO rush back to get the cleaning and cooking done. HAVE TO rush back because Shabbat is coming. I'm ashamed to say it but I'm really having a hard time with this right now. I came home and told DH, "This Shabbat thing is NOT NORMAL. It's either work or Shabbat, Shabbat or work. No Sunday even where we can take a deep breath - where I can do something FOR MYSELF - and recover from Shabbat before jumping back into the work week. Work isn't about ME. It's about me jumping through hoops for someone else. Shabbat isn't about me. It's about Hashem. The I, the ME, has nowhere to express itself and just be, just do something purely for enjoyment's sake."
For an adventurous, creative person like me, the monotony of the Friday routine is just a killer. A KILLER.
Then there's work......
I'm losing my motivation at work fast. Lately I've been very involved in the translation process (Hebrew to English ) of no less than 130 documents. I'm the contact person for the person who actually does the translation. I send them to him, he translates, sends them back to me, I have to check the English translation against the original Hebrew, mark any corrections or mistakes I find with "track changes" in WORD and send them back to him to either accept my corrections or not. If he doesn't then we have this back-and-forth by phone or email about it until we agree. Fine. So yesterday I sent him 9 WORD documents with small corrections marked with tracking that I wanted him to accept. Today he sends me back those exact same 9 files which the tracked changes still marked in red. When I expressed surprise, he said, "Oh yeah. I had a teleconference about it with Orly and Tamar in your company and this is what was agreed." I wrote him back and ccd those two women he'd referred to and I said to him, "No one informed me as to what was agreed in the conference call." This Orly jumped all over me about "airing the company's dirty laundry" and that if I have questions or need a clarification I need to inquire internally. OK. Fair enough. I said ok and apologized to her. I did tell her that it really bothers me that I have to hear from her THROUGH HIM what the outcome of the conference call was. Like, until now all my dealings with him have been handled one way and then all of a sudden he's telling me, "Noooooo, your people told me that now it has to be done THIS way." He sounded shocked - and rightly so - that I wasn't in the loop. I felt like such an idiot. I told this Orly that I have NO problem switching my modus operandi with our translation people but I just need to know what the new rules are and NOT hear it from someone outside the company. So that set me off to a bad start today. I was ticked.
Then, for a different study I'm responsible for administering, there are these bi-weekly T/Cs that are recorded and then the next day I listen to the recording and transcribe the meeting minutes. It's a PAIN IN THE BUTT but hopefully this won't be going on much longer. Not sure. Anyway, I spent TWO HOURS on Thursday transcribing, every minute of it is torture and then another girl came into my office and asked me to quickly help her edit a document of hers and in doing so she shut down my document with the meeting minutes that I'd worked on for two hours. I lost the whole thing. It's my fault for not saving it before starting to type. But still. I hate when people come in and help themselves to my computer even if I'm sitting right here. I wanted to STRANGLE her but I had to be nice and say, "Don't worry about it. It doesn't matter. I'll just spend ANOTHER TWO HOURS on Sunday redoing the WHOLE BLOODY THING!" I was this close to crying. Especially after the thing about the translator. I feel like I got NOTHING done at work Thursday. Just one of those awful, awful days.
Don't get me wrong. It's a good company - a lot going for it - and good people but like I've been saying for a few weeks now, someone is starting to make some really bad management decisions and it's affecting not just me badly. It's really hard to keep the motivation up long-term under these conditions. I wish I could quit. I have to close my eyes a few times a day and grit my teeth and just say thank you that I even have a job. I spent 2 years at home under atomic financial pressure and that was enough to last me the rest of my life.
Y has an end of year school party to go to for which the kids have to wear ALL black from head to toe which means I have to rush out and buy her black everything - more stress - which she'll never wear again. (I do NOT dress my kids in black! Why? Who died?)
Y has been taking gynmastics two times a week this year. Then recently she said she's bored with it and wants to try soccer. So we stupidly signed her up for soccer in addition to gymnastics through the end of this month. Which means she has an after-school activity that she has to be schlepped to FOUR nights a week! WHAT were we thinking???
Then on the 28th she has an end of year party for her gynmastics class AND the end of year party for soccer was also scheduled for the same night so we told her she has to go to the gymnastics party since she's invested a lot more time in gymnastics this year.
But wait. It gets better. DH popped me a message on Skype today that we have been invited to his sister's house, also on the evening of the 28th, to help her celebrate her birthday! I nearly lost it. You've GOT to be joking! I desperately need to clear my schedule, not double book on the same night!
T's cousin is having his Bar Mitzvah next Shabbat so she wants to go out to buy a new outfit for it. I seriously have ZERO time to go shopping with her and the thought of dragging E with us while we do it doesn't bear thinking about. I told her last night she should go shopping with a girlfriend, find something nice and ask the store to hold it for her and I will go in a pay for it. I told her to take a picture of whatever it is she finds to show me when she gets home. We'll see if she remembers that bit.
I feel like crying just thinking how frazzling these next two weeks are going to be..........I haven't even told you the half of it but.......duty calls.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Long Time No.....Blog
I'm back after an unplanned blogging absence. Life got away from me for a while. Again.
No, but seriously.....about 2 months ago my workload increased about 10 fold at work. I won't bore you with the details but suffice to say someone around here has very unrealistic expectations and their sense of how long our (my and the two other admin girls') tasks take us is very "off". When I voiced some complaints recently about this insane workload to my boss, she said after the summer vacation we'll all sit down and raise problems, reassess, etc. OK. I'm prepared to give it that long but something's gotta change and if it doesn't, I'm NOT sticking around here for 6 years like I did in my last job. It's a shame because the people here are NOT bad people. The company's been around for 20+ years and you'd think by now they'd get people management and company management down pat - but nooooooooo. Someone around here is making some really bad management decisions and employees are starting to leave because of it. One employee has already announced that she's leaving and 3 others in the past week have said they're thinking of looking for something else. But what?
DH has been out late 4 nights a week for the past month and a half at play rehearsals. He was in 3 performances last week so now that's finished with, thank goodness. On the one hand, he's very dramatic and TALENTED when it comes to acting (how come acting comes to naturally to Brits?) and needs an outlet for it and it's nice having him out from under foot in the evenings so I can conduct my evening and do what I need to do with the kids without interference from him but........I barely saw him the whole 6 weeks except on weekends which was hard.
I've booked my ticket to the U.S. for 2 weeks in October. I'm going to meet for the first time my half-sister who I found on Facebook a year ago February. This is my Dad's daughter from his first short-lived marriage. The plan is that while I'm staying with her in the Seattle area, Dad and his wife will drive up to see me and meet his daughter and her family for the first time as well. Needless to say it's going to be a VERY intense trip. So I'm looking forward to the trip and having a break. I just hope DH will manage with the kids while I'm away.
I'm taking T to a play at the theater in Tel Aviv tonight. It's a comedy and came highly recommended by a few people I work with so hope it will be good and that she'll enjoy it.
The summer is fast approaching.....Y will be in the camp run by her school for the first three weeks of the summer.
T is looking for a job waitressing in one of the many wedding halls around town although since she's not 16 yet (legally employable), she's not sure anyone will hire her. In lieu of that, she has been asked to work as a mother's helper for a friend of mine who just had her 2nd baby but I'm not sure how full-time that will be. In addition, she was asked by another friend of mine to babysit her three kids for three weeks, 4 days a week from 9-1. Not sure how she's planning to coordinate those two child minding jobs but it's nice to be in demand. She wants to work as much as possible this summer which I am very glad to see. She said over half the kids in her class have jobs of one kind or another and I guess it's rubbing off on her so......something positive. Yay!
I have completed another set of earrings from a new beading book that was just published and which I ordered off the internet. These patterns are more complicated than anything I've done until now and I wasn't sure I'd be able to follow the written instructions so I started off with the earrings. I figured if they didn't turn out, I wouldn't have wasted a lot of money on a huge quantity of beads such as the bigger projects call for. Anyway, they came out AMAZINGLY and I've started a BIG necklace project that will take me some time to complete.
Y lost her 3rd tooth on Tuesday and found a nice letter AND 10 NIS from the tooth fairy in an envelope under her pillow yesterday morning. :-) That tooth was a loooooooooong time in falling - whew!
I am SO happy to announce that E seems to have FINALLY cottoned on to pooping in the pot and hasn't missed once in the last 8 or 9 days. All of a sudden it clicked for him. Of course the first few times we all made a huge deal over it and him and danced and cheered and gave him treats afterwards. We told him, "See? Abba's smiling and Ima's smiling and T is smiling and Y is smiling and your teacher is smiling. EVERYONE is smiling." He likes when he's pooping for me to sit on the edge of our bed and talk to him. So this morning he was pooping and we were talking. Then with his two index fingers he pushed the corners of his own mouth into a smile and said, "Ima! Smile! You're not SMILING!" LOL
And another funny....On Friday E said he had to pee. He pulls his pants down and....um....he had a little erection. So he sits down on the pot and he's trying to explain what's going on. He's like, "Ima? Um....Ima?....um....my willie (DH's word for penis).....hu ("he's" or "it's" in Hebrew) GROWING!" LOLOLOL. OMG, now WHAT do you do with a statement like THAT???
And a funny from Y....she said, "Ima, does the hospital have clowns who come to make the children happy when they come for a vaccination?" I said they might have clowns who come to make children who are very ill and who have to be in the hospital for a LONG time happy and help them to forget for a little while how bad they feel. I said, "Would you like to have a job like that of being a clown who makes ill children happy?" She said, "Nah. I want to be a policewoman." When I asked why she said, "I need a job with more action - riding in the a police car, chasing people......" She kills me!
Y also informed us that she is bored with gynmastics and wants to take soccer next year. I took her for a trial lesson (she is the ONLY girl there!!!!) at the community center across the street from us where it is offered and she said she definitely wants to sign up for next year. (I thought her being the only girl would be a deterrent but no. She's ok with it! The girl has so much self-confidence it's not even funny.) And I'm the last one who's going to discourage her. I asked at the center if she could join the team already this year even though there's only a month left in this school year and they said yes. DH and I figured that will give her a month to try it on a twice weekly basis and then she'll have to decide between soccer and gynmastics for next year.
No, but seriously.....about 2 months ago my workload increased about 10 fold at work. I won't bore you with the details but suffice to say someone around here has very unrealistic expectations and their sense of how long our (my and the two other admin girls') tasks take us is very "off". When I voiced some complaints recently about this insane workload to my boss, she said after the summer vacation we'll all sit down and raise problems, reassess, etc. OK. I'm prepared to give it that long but something's gotta change and if it doesn't, I'm NOT sticking around here for 6 years like I did in my last job. It's a shame because the people here are NOT bad people. The company's been around for 20+ years and you'd think by now they'd get people management and company management down pat - but nooooooooo. Someone around here is making some really bad management decisions and employees are starting to leave because of it. One employee has already announced that she's leaving and 3 others in the past week have said they're thinking of looking for something else. But what?
DH has been out late 4 nights a week for the past month and a half at play rehearsals. He was in 3 performances last week so now that's finished with, thank goodness. On the one hand, he's very dramatic and TALENTED when it comes to acting (how come acting comes to naturally to Brits?) and needs an outlet for it and it's nice having him out from under foot in the evenings so I can conduct my evening and do what I need to do with the kids without interference from him but........I barely saw him the whole 6 weeks except on weekends which was hard.
I've booked my ticket to the U.S. for 2 weeks in October. I'm going to meet for the first time my half-sister who I found on Facebook a year ago February. This is my Dad's daughter from his first short-lived marriage. The plan is that while I'm staying with her in the Seattle area, Dad and his wife will drive up to see me and meet his daughter and her family for the first time as well. Needless to say it's going to be a VERY intense trip. So I'm looking forward to the trip and having a break. I just hope DH will manage with the kids while I'm away.
I'm taking T to a play at the theater in Tel Aviv tonight. It's a comedy and came highly recommended by a few people I work with so hope it will be good and that she'll enjoy it.
The summer is fast approaching.....Y will be in the camp run by her school for the first three weeks of the summer.
T is looking for a job waitressing in one of the many wedding halls around town although since she's not 16 yet (legally employable), she's not sure anyone will hire her. In lieu of that, she has been asked to work as a mother's helper for a friend of mine who just had her 2nd baby but I'm not sure how full-time that will be. In addition, she was asked by another friend of mine to babysit her three kids for three weeks, 4 days a week from 9-1. Not sure how she's planning to coordinate those two child minding jobs but it's nice to be in demand. She wants to work as much as possible this summer which I am very glad to see. She said over half the kids in her class have jobs of one kind or another and I guess it's rubbing off on her so......something positive. Yay!
I have completed another set of earrings from a new beading book that was just published and which I ordered off the internet. These patterns are more complicated than anything I've done until now and I wasn't sure I'd be able to follow the written instructions so I started off with the earrings. I figured if they didn't turn out, I wouldn't have wasted a lot of money on a huge quantity of beads such as the bigger projects call for. Anyway, they came out AMAZINGLY and I've started a BIG necklace project that will take me some time to complete.
Y lost her 3rd tooth on Tuesday and found a nice letter AND 10 NIS from the tooth fairy in an envelope under her pillow yesterday morning. :-) That tooth was a loooooooooong time in falling - whew!
I am SO happy to announce that E seems to have FINALLY cottoned on to pooping in the pot and hasn't missed once in the last 8 or 9 days. All of a sudden it clicked for him. Of course the first few times we all made a huge deal over it and him and danced and cheered and gave him treats afterwards. We told him, "See? Abba's smiling and Ima's smiling and T is smiling and Y is smiling and your teacher is smiling. EVERYONE is smiling." He likes when he's pooping for me to sit on the edge of our bed and talk to him. So this morning he was pooping and we were talking. Then with his two index fingers he pushed the corners of his own mouth into a smile and said, "Ima! Smile! You're not SMILING!" LOL
And another funny....On Friday E said he had to pee. He pulls his pants down and....um....he had a little erection. So he sits down on the pot and he's trying to explain what's going on. He's like, "Ima? Um....Ima?....um....my willie (DH's word for penis).....hu ("he's" or "it's" in Hebrew) GROWING!" LOLOLOL. OMG, now WHAT do you do with a statement like THAT???
And a funny from Y....she said, "Ima, does the hospital have clowns who come to make the children happy when they come for a vaccination?" I said they might have clowns who come to make children who are very ill and who have to be in the hospital for a LONG time happy and help them to forget for a little while how bad they feel. I said, "Would you like to have a job like that of being a clown who makes ill children happy?" She said, "Nah. I want to be a policewoman." When I asked why she said, "I need a job with more action - riding in the a police car, chasing people......" She kills me!
Y also informed us that she is bored with gynmastics and wants to take soccer next year. I took her for a trial lesson (she is the ONLY girl there!!!!) at the community center across the street from us where it is offered and she said she definitely wants to sign up for next year. (I thought her being the only girl would be a deterrent but no. She's ok with it! The girl has so much self-confidence it's not even funny.) And I'm the last one who's going to discourage her. I asked at the center if she could join the team already this year even though there's only a month left in this school year and they said yes. DH and I figured that will give her a month to try it on a twice weekly basis and then she'll have to decide between soccer and gynmastics for next year.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Kindness
My friend, Pesha, who lives 2 long blocks down and around the corner from me and who made aliyah with her Israeli husband and 2 boys about 3 years ago from FL, has started holding a Rosh Chodesh gathering for women at her house. She, herself, spoke once where she told how she got her Hebrew name when she was a baby. Truly an amazing story. On other occasions she has had other people speak to the group as she did last night.
Pesha had asked all of us in her invitation email to also bring along a story of a kindness that someone had done for us. She said that when we're speaking to each other on the phone or on FB as friends, we tend to do a LOT of complaining whether it be about the weather, our husbands, our kids, about how mcuh we miss America, how messy our houses are and how we never seem to catch up, etc.
And this is the story I shared which happened very recently.
It was about 2 days after Passover. Normally we set the alarm for 6 am but don't really have to get the kids up and get everyone moving until 6:45. This way we have 45 minutes to ourselves to talk, listen to the English news on the radio at 6:30, etc. Well, the alarm went off at 6 am on this particular morning and when it did, I was so tired I just burst into tears.
DH took a very (for him) novel approach. He got up, left the bedroom, closed the door behind him, went to get the kids up and ready for school and left me alone in a quiet bedroom for those 45 minutes before I had to get up and get showered. I couldn't exactly go back to sleep but at least I could stay in bed and didn't have to move. When I came out, expecting to have to deal with the kids, everything was done. Kids dressed, sandwiches made. He'd done everything from A to Z. All I had to do was get myself ready.
That was a WOW moment for me because it was so uncharacteristic of him, shall we say. And it was very very appreciated. Space and time to myself is something I value almost more than anything else and that's what he was giving me. So.....big thank you to him!
Pesha had asked all of us in her invitation email to also bring along a story of a kindness that someone had done for us. She said that when we're speaking to each other on the phone or on FB as friends, we tend to do a LOT of complaining whether it be about the weather, our husbands, our kids, about how mcuh we miss America, how messy our houses are and how we never seem to catch up, etc.
And this is the story I shared which happened very recently.
It was about 2 days after Passover. Normally we set the alarm for 6 am but don't really have to get the kids up and get everyone moving until 6:45. This way we have 45 minutes to ourselves to talk, listen to the English news on the radio at 6:30, etc. Well, the alarm went off at 6 am on this particular morning and when it did, I was so tired I just burst into tears.
DH took a very (for him) novel approach. He got up, left the bedroom, closed the door behind him, went to get the kids up and ready for school and left me alone in a quiet bedroom for those 45 minutes before I had to get up and get showered. I couldn't exactly go back to sleep but at least I could stay in bed and didn't have to move. When I came out, expecting to have to deal with the kids, everything was done. Kids dressed, sandwiches made. He'd done everything from A to Z. All I had to do was get myself ready.
That was a WOW moment for me because it was so uncharacteristic of him, shall we say. And it was very very appreciated. Space and time to myself is something I value almost more than anything else and that's what he was giving me. So.....big thank you to him!
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Pesach Pics
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| The view from my office on a very rare, foggy morning recently. |
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| Killing time waiting for the movie to start. |
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| Is that a teen pose or what? |
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| BAD picture of me..... |
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| In Toys R Us...... |
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| Outside the mall where the movie was, they have all these life-size statues of real and fictional animals....... |
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| Mr. T Rex |
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| Monday afternoon we went to the Passover festival on the Carlebach moshav. LOVE this setting! |
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| Face painting.... |
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| Families picnicing, visiting, listening to the live bands...... |
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| They had people there selling their crafts on tables under the trees - pottery, jewelry, clothing, aromatherapy oils..... |
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| Stage where one band after another performed.... |
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| Hair braiding and decorating with beads, flowers......right up Y's alley! |
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| Soul food |
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| The road out of the moshav - doesn't it just make you want to slow down and MOSEY? |
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| Chava's Farm - tractor ride |
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| Petting corner - chick. |
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| Guinea pig |
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| Duck |
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| Mr. Camel |
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| Mr. Donkey |
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| Getting ready to ride the donkey. |
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| Mr. Bull |
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| HOT! |
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| One of several picnic areas. |
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| One of two or three NICE and HUGE parks near us. This one is about a 3 minute drive away. |
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