Things and Pics

It's seems like ages since I last wrote. Life just seems to get away from me sometimes. Let's see. What's been going on?

Pesach (Passover) is looming. I'm very proud of myself because one evening last week, T and I cleaned the shelves of all the upper kitchen cabinets. Not a small job. This evening I hope to get the lower drawers and cabinets cleaned out with her help. I think this is the earliest I've ever started Pesach cleaning! I also need to make the menu and do the food shopping soon in the hopes of beating the crowds. It looks like just my Mom will be joining us this year for the Seder. DH's married kids and mother all asked to come for Chag Sheini (last day) so that's going to be more of a strain for me than the seder itself.

For my Mom's birthday at the beginning of this month, I made her a beautiful Swarovski bracelet which was time consuming to make and not cheap. She wore it for an hour and managed to lose it! Very bummed about that. I told her I'd make her another one as soon as I can.

T is due to start taking her math "matkonot" tests in school starting right after Passover. These tests are every few days over the course of a month. Math has always been her bug-a-boo subject. I told her I do NOT want her attempting to study for these tests without a private teacher to guide her/help her study. The father of E's best friend in gan is a high school math teacher and the family lives down the block from us. I know the father tutors students. A lovely, lovely man. I spoke to him yesterday about possibly tutoring T in preparation for these tests. He asked if she needs teaching - in which case he wouldn't have time to take her on - or just practice. I told him I thought she needed teaching. He said to send her over to their house last night at 9 pm so he could talk to her and draw his own conclusions. T was there until 10:15. I spoke to the father, Ronen, after she got back. He said she definitely needs teaching. The way he put it was "her head works, the math doesn't". He teaches math in three local high schools and said in every class he's ever taught he's had 2-3 students like T. After orinigally saying he didn't have time to teach her, he said he would tutor her but that I needed to speak to the school's counsellor and see if the school would be willing to let T take the "Moed B" (a 2nd test for those who didn't pass the first one) in July which will allow T more time for lessons with Ronen to bring her up to speed. I spoke to the counsellor and she agreed without hesitation. She didn't even blink at my request which was a HUGE relief. So it looks like it's a green light for weekly lessons for T until July.

We are potty training E. Again. A few months ago he was half trained (peepee) but I got tired of washing poop out of his pants 4 times a day. We figured he wasn't ready yet so put him back in diapers. Now the weather's a tad warmer and Passover vacation is coming up where I'll be off work a lot more and can deal with him so starting last Shabbat we've foregone the diapers - cold turkey. Even at night. We've covered the couch and rolled up the carpets. Geesh! It's like housebreaking a dog.

Last Monday they finally moved me into my new office at work. I'm in love! Small, cute, compact office with two HUGE windows. You almost need sunglasses in here. I now have a door, too, so most days I've got baroque classical music playing softly in the background or streaming nature sounds (burbling creek and forest birds cheeping - I'm always looking for ways to bring the outdoors inside....). So many people have told me my office is the nicest. I've had repeat visitors of other employees who just walk in and want to go ooooo and ahhhhh. O yeah! Lots of atmos in here! I went to the nursery the evening before they moved me over and treated myself to a really pretty plant for the office. I hope I don't kill it.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow and Friday. A spring storm. It's been a very wet winter with lots of snow up north so the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) is filling up nicely. I hope the weather over Pesach vacation will be decent. I'm working 2 full days during chol hamoed and I'm off the rest. I hope to do lots of outdoorsy stuff with the kids - maybe take them camping for one night on the beach near here. I really don't feel like being on the roads with the rest of the country so we'll probably just stick close to home.

Here are a bunch of misc pics that I found on my camera:

Me on Purim. I wore this hat and nose to work the day before Purim. The CEO loved it and came into my office a few times for 2nd and 3rd looks.



E hiding the the kitchen garbage can's insert.

A lemon!



The start of the Rehovot Walk a few Fridays ago.



The fields on the eastern edge of Rehovot.





A tower used in the early days of the State of Israel as a lookout point to protect Rehovot from the surrounding Arabs.



DH.

Feasting on strawberries!



And THAT....believe it or not....is the backside of T.



AWWW. Sweet boychik.

Museum

I've spoken and Skyped with DH a few times. Sounds like they're getting around and seeing things despite the cold. The one time I spoke at length to Y she was telling me about Shrek (the play) that DH took her to see. DH's cousin drove them around town and they saw Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square covered in icicles, the soldiers on horses (missed the changing of the guard), and they went to the Science Museum on Friday. Yesterday they went to the Natural History Museum and DH sent me this picture of Y:

Up Up and Away

I'm losing 2/5 of my family this evening. I mean, DH and Y are flying to the UK to visit family for nearly 2 weeks. I'm missing Y already and I'm only slightly jealous that I'm not going with them. Until I remember how cold it will be there and then the jealousy vanishes with a "poof!". Better them than me.

I keep reminding myself how nice it will be to have the car to myself, have the bed to myself and not be woken countless times by DH's snoring, to have my evenings foot loose and fancy free after E goes to bed (I wonder what time that will be and if he'll give me problems in that department?). The possibilities are endless!

I definitely hope to get to bed earlier rather than later and catch up on my sleep. I hope to read a lot. I hope to get the house more or less shipshape and, hopefully, without 2 family members around, maybe - just maybe - it will stay shipshape for longer? I hope to spend some time with T shopping for things that she needs for her room to make it look like a room and less like a storage shed. I hope to get some beading done. I hope to get caught up on the ironing.

Also, since DH won't be here to do it, I'll be leaving work earlier for these two weeks in order to pick E up from gan. It will also be a mini-vacation for me to get out of work just a tad earlier and have more of an afternoon/evening to go to my Mom's, go visit friends who aren't local, take E to the park if the weather permits, etc.

I'm usually good - really good - on my own but I'm feeling sort of.......lost......just thinking about them going. And the dark, gray weather outside matches my mood.