There’s been no blog for a short while. Life is a little hectic at present. New school for both kids, new work projects coming in and just that giddy feeling that comes with being time starved.
I ‘took five’ today. The little one was acting bored so I took her out into the garden for a walk around. I was about to busy myself out there when I decided that I would hang out with her a little. The chores could wait.
I followed her as she toddled about, investigating plants, poking about in boxes and chasing the cat. She located a tube of ‘bubbles’ so we sat down, blew them and watched as they floated, gracefully into the air. She stood up, arms out-stretched with a gleeful expression on her face.
She then decided to walk down the side of the garden where, under the trees, lies a pile of dried out pink blossom and leaves. This is one of her favorite places. She stomped her little feet in the shifting pile of summer’s lost glory. We marched through, delighting in the noise and feel of our actions and then stooped down to take handfuls of petals and throw them into the air.
I know that some people spend precious time and money buying a whole range of stress relief products or undertaking all sorts of treatments and activities.
I think we are all born with an innate ability to relax and enjoy the world around us. However, it seems that the older we get the less in tune to that side of ourselves we become. We also have it low down on our list of priorities.
Today I had a strange thought; I imagined what it would be like for every office to have a 'leaf room', where workers could chill out and recapture a wild, childhood pleasure. Wouldn't that be fun!
They say that the best things in life are free; well twenty minutes in the garden with my adorable daughter and I felt like a new woman.
Sharona B
www.judaicamosaica.com
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Time to Unwind
Monday, July 21, 2008
24 Hours of Trouble
Well things seem to be settling down a little. The baby is getting used to nursery, and the kids are enjoying their holiday activities.
My daughter has been going to a wonderful holiday camp at a neighboring yeshuv. She has a different activity every day and is surrounded by kind, well behaved children. She is in a caring, educational environment and is just thriving there. We have been so pleased with her experience there that we are actually considering sending her to the school that runs the club.
My son, as ever, goes through life with his eyes half shut and his head in the clouds. This weekend is a classic example of the chaos he causes. Friday afternoon we all took turns to have a pre Shabbat shower. He kept stalling having his shower, distracting himself with various activities. Finally we heard the shower going and breathed a sigh of relief that he was at last on the way to getting ready. We carried on making our final preparations, when suddenly we heard a dripping sound. We followed the sound to see water pouring down from the ceiling. I ran upstairs to find the hall waterlogged. I waded into the bathroom and shouted to my son to turn off the shower. We thought at first we had sprung a leak, but no, this was all down to my dozy son. He had turned on the shower and languished beneath the warm water, singing quietly to himself, thinking about the Shabbat ahead…. standing there with his foot over the plug hole and water running first out of the shower then making a trail of destruction down the hall and finally falling in a puddle downstairs.
On Shabbat afternoon I decided to take the baby to the park for an hour. He wanted to come along too and insisted on taking a new football his dad had just brought him. “It’s too hot to play ball,” I said, but he insisted and I relented. We had a nice time. The baby went on the swing and then accompanied her big brother on various other rides. We took the long, scenic route home and chatted together before arriving home.
We had visitors in the afternoon, a new family who had just moved into the yeshuv. We welcomed them to our home and apologized for the heavy small of damp in the house! As I put out seudah shlishit my son rushed over to ‘help’ me. He took a big bowl of pasta and transported it to the table, however, his concentration being what it is, the pasta never reached the table; suffice to say I was cleaning up pasta, sauce and smashed bowl shortly afterwards.
In the evening, Shabbat out, we watched some TV, checked our emails and then, gradually got the kids to bed. As I tucked him in my son suddenly remembered something; he had left his ball in the park!
I don’t know! He is 24 hours of trouble. Let’s hope he grows out of it soon.
Sharona B
www.judaicamosaica.com
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Settling In
It’s been a strange week. Much of it involved settling the little one into nursery.
Last Tuesday I delivered her, loitered for five minutes then disappeared into the next room. I couldn’t quite bring myself to leave the nursery; I wanted to be on hand in case she needed me. I could hear her crying but she was whining rather than hysterical. I tried to read a book but was just too distracted. The Nursery Nurse kept sneaking back to me to tell me how things were going. She told me to go into another part of the nursery and relax.
I went to where the babies are looked after. When I arrived they were all asleep and I chatted to the lady who cared for them. Initially we spoke in Hebrew and then discovered we were both English speakers. This was a relief to me as my Hebrew is pretty basic. She was originally from Swaziland and told me that at its peak in the late 1970s the Jewish community there numbered 14 families! I spent a very pleasant hour chatting to her and she also crept out a couple of times to report back to me.
After an hour and a half I went back to my teary-eyed daughter and got the biggest hug ever. It is so hard to leave her – hard for her, hard for me.
She went again on Thursday and Friday, just for a few hours. They said that she is doing better – crying on and off, but taking part in activities. They told me to persevere. I dropped her off again today and she cried as we turned up the nursery path. I said my farewells and then stood outside the nursery for a while, listening to my daughter cry. Finally I got a grip and went home.
It is sweltering in Israel at the moment. We have fans in each of our bedrooms to help us get through the hot nights. The fans in Israel seem to be made to fall apart before the end of each summer. The fan in the baby’s room has a broken stand and is propped up against a wall. We recently bought a fan for our room and the buttons have all broken, they just fell apart in our hands, stayed pushed in or simply refuse to be pressed.
We didn’t buy this particular fan locally so I couldn’t be bothered to take it on the bus and return it. Instead I spent this evening taking it apart and using the parts to fix all the faults in the rest of the family’s fans. The fan in the baby’s room is now nice and sturdy, the one in my daughter’s room has new casing. I gave the remaining remnants of the fan to my son who spent an hour happily unscrewing it and taking it apart. Having got as far as he could he decided he was going to continue enjoying this exciting new toy by smashing it to smithereens with a hammer. Each to their own I guess.
Sharona B
