I"m grateful for: doing more and having fun; homemade soup; the chick still surviving.

I've been busy. Busy is good. At least it's been good, and fun. I'm trying not to freak out about the things I'm not doing - laundry, housework, email, writing in my diary. I'm enjoying reading with El'yah (he's turned the corner, and is actually reading - he's got a long way to go, but he can read books like Hop on Pop. It's great!). I really liked spending the day in Be'er Sheva even if we missed the parade. We shopped and got to see the re-enactment which was cool. I can't say I've enjoyed getting and EKG, and blood drawn, and dental work, but they are all necessary things that I don't have to do again...

Obviously I will have more dental work in my life, not to mention possibly needing more tests, but it's done for the moment.

I really liked being able to shop at the shuk for whatever I wanted to put into a soup, and then making that same soup, which tasted pretty darn good, and I'm not the only one who says so.

BTW, I have no hope of putting up a soup recipe. I tend to throw things in that look good, then add spices according to what seems right to me at the time. I seem to simply have a gift for soups. This was a vegetable soup with potatoes, green onions, string beans, some kind of gourd which we see at the shuk and cooks up well in a soup, tomatoes, and, well, that sort of thing. Spices are salt & pepper, parsley flakes, caraway seeds, and I can't think of anything else but there was something. Throw it all in a crock pot, just cover with water, and cook at high for ten-twenty minutes, then turn it down to low and just let it cook until you want to eat it. Don't stir much - once or twice just at the start, and if you leave it on the heat for more than four hours, at least every four hours. Over-stirring soups is, I think, one of the worst things people do. Just my opinion.

I didn't buy beets, although I looked longingly at them once or twice. Next week. It must be my Russian grandfather, who almost lived on borscht, expressing himself through me. So, not borscht (I truly can't stand the stuff) but a beet soup to my taste, and hopefully the rest of the family as well.

When Havva was in the house, I couldn't cook what I wanted - between her food sensitivities, and the fact that she just doesn't like anything, every soup was almost identical. Potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, peppers, onions. No corn, peas, beets, celery, well, kind of boring after a while, to say the least. I'm hoping to explode in a kind of cooking whirlwind. After the surgery. If I can. But I'll make the beet soup before I go in hospital.

Anyway, I've been busy, having fun, Zechy and I finished a first go through the books. They are far from all sorted, or even identified, but it is SUCH an improvement. Now I have to stop buying books for a while so our cataloguing and bookshelves can catch up.

I really, really miss Havva. And Hans.

I am finding that having a smaller household, three children, John and myself, is a bit of a blessing all by itself. The laundry has fallen below the threshold and now we do laundry two or three days a week instead of continuously. We all fit in the den, we can all meet in my room without too much miserable squishing. There is both time and space to organize things that have just languished in boxes and/or in corners for months or even years. We even all fit in the (too-small) car. It's still too small, none of us has enough leg room, or arm room even, but there are enough seats for the whole family as it is.

So while I am sorry to see the household dwindling, I am finding some compensations.

I don't know if I wrote that we have one chick? It's still alive so far, and doing quite well apparently. The mom is a really good mom, and we are being quite careful not to let the dogs in the back yard when there is a chance of the chick being out - which means basically from sunrise to sunset. A pain, but worth it to me for sure.

I have to get some sleep now. I'd hoped to get eight hours, now I'll be lucky to get seven. But I'm getting to lie down before midnight. So I'm not going to complain too much.

I'm listening to The Kingston Trio: Lei Pakalana

:: 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