Botticelli me thumbnail
- Profile -+- Notes -+-Archives-+- E-Mail -+-Diaryland-+- Fotolog -+- Latest -

Honey is Sweet

One week - 2006-12-09

I'm grateful for: A fully fenced sports field; a working laundry system; getting the handicapped parking permit.

I'm going to try and keep this short, short, short because I am supposed to be taking a nap, and I need one desperately.

The last week has been, well, busy. :-) I am very pleased and proud that I've been up and working for almost all of it, sick and all. The house is still working. I think every day we are happier here, even though it is small. John has spent the lion's share of the last week driving back and forth between the old house and here, bringing down mini-van loads of our stuff. Amazingly, it is all working, and the new people haven't moved in yet.

We have the kitchen mostly set up, the den is looking pretty good, all the bedrooms are pretty well - full of stuff without shelves or cabinets or closets to put it in, but everyone can manage their stuff and there is walking room and, it's working.

The salon is a bit of a disaster, but John's computer is set up so that he can work from home tomorrow, when his official vacation time is over and he has to start putting in hours. We have the internet, mostly. There are occasional problems, but that is with the service, not the house in particular. It just goes out occasionally. Usually for only a moment or two, but then we have to shut the router down and restart everything. Life in the country, ahhhh. :-)

The smaller house is doing much better than we could ever have hoped. John has done awesome work getting the garbage out of here (there is still a huge amount to go, but it's visibly less). We still have stuff to bring down from the old house. A little bit of furniture - a smaller bookshelf or two, a chair or two - and other than that mostly books I believe.

What can I say? We are having a wonderful time. Today John took all the kids and the two dogs to the basketball court/sports area. I think it's used more for soccer than basketball here, in a Moroccan neighbourhood. It's completely fenced, so the dogs could be let off their leads and have a really good run for the first time in who knows how long? It might be the first time ever for Balta, for all I know.

The kids ran and played and it was just wonderful. The dogs came back with their tongues hanging out so far they didn't have the strength to drag them up the stairs. :-) We certainly couldn't do that before.

The neighbours continue to be wonderful. I don't know if I wrote it, but the other American's/English-speakers on the moshav are on the other side of the place. We are surrounded by the people who founded it, or their children, or their grandchildren. I needed a couple of carrots before shabbos for potato soup (I made it myself! Even cutting up the vegetables!!!!!) and John asked the postmistress (two houses down) who hadn't had time to do her own shopping so she sent a message to a friend of hers to give me Three carrots (just in case), who then sent up by way of a child or grandchild (I don't have any of the relationships worked out) FIVE carrots. No big deal, but she'd taken the time to wash them for me, and this is a tiny taste of everything here.

We had a short-circuit and in no time a neighbour we hadn't met yet, who had a couple of connectors we needed, was here fixing it up for us - John had just happened to run into him on our way to ask for help from a neighbour we do know. I don't even know what his name is. I mean the one who helped us.

Our next-door neighbour, Tzion, wants us to open a makolet (neighbourhood grocery) in the small house. There is a building on the moshav that is available for opening a makolet, rent-free, but Tzion wants us to do it here. I don't really understand why. It sounds doable, but it is utterly up to Hashem. The money and figuring all the ins and outs is not something we can manage just at this time. Let us finish moving first.

Well, I guess that has to count as short for today. I really, really, truly need that nap. I haven't slept as much as eight hours a single night this week, and I am still sick, although much better than I was at the beginning of the week. I can imagine a day when I can actually breathe through my nose, and sleep without waking up coughing and choking.

I just can't write how happy it is to find ourselves in a place which suits us, where the people are so wonderful, where we 'fit.' Where our animals are welcome and when the air smells bad it's from the lulim (chicken houses) behind us, or from the manure spread on the fields for fertilizer, and where vile black crud doesn't accumulate on the floors every single day without fail.

There is still more to do than I can even contemplate, even without the rest of our stuff that isn't here yet. Neil is still with us, but it's going much better. As much the reduced stress as anything, I suppose, but I think the smaller house and more intimate living is really helping as well. It's much harder for him to isolate here, that's for sure. His bedroom is right in the middle, too.

Ma Od? I've been working on my Hebrew. Not making a lot of progress, but as long as I am working on it, at least I am going in the right direction rather than backwards. My bed doesn't fit in my bedroom, so John and I (who are sharing a room again) are sleeping on the futon sofa, which is definitely good for my back. And just - life is good today.

I'm listening to Neil and Simcha and Eliyahu and Zechy, a game of Dungeon. Heaven

0 bleats so far

:: Yesterdays : Tomorrows ::

~~~Last Five Entries~~~
Hi and goodbye - 2010-10-15
I'll be moving on - 2010-10-10
Gold membership and stuff - 2010-10-10
Decisions, decisions - 2010-10-07
Days to go - 2010-10-06