I'm grateful for: a miracle today; getting all the laundry done; garlic bread, hot tea and vitamin C.

I'm sick. S2 is *really* sick. S1 is sick. S3 is a little bit sick (not so very much, but he doesn't want to be left out). D3 is a bit sick. TH is not, as usual, sick. I'm worried about D2, who went home to work, and can't take time off from work to be sick. Not only does she need the money, but there simply isn't anyone else to do her job.

Today a miracle happened, and I woke up before 7am (reasonably well rested), and proceeded to spend the day doing laundry, washing dishes, picking up dog hair, and generally cleaning and doing the things a full time mother/housewife theoretically ought to spend her time doing. Rather than lying around crippled and asking my children to bring me food and drink. I cannot express how much of a miracle this is, or how clearly it is a miracle. If I had wanted to, and with all the will-power of a (mostly-)recovered anorexic, I could not have forced myself out of bed yesterday to do one tenth of what I managed today.

Today, it was effortless. I didn't think about it, I didn't work at it or force myself, it just happened. A miracle.

When I got up I didn't yet know how bad it was around here. Children lying around crying and moaning, and adult children hacking up a lung at odd intervals. So it wasn't about my 'rising to the situation.'

Well, anyway, that's pretty much what today was like. I helped S1 print something using my big computer and the new printer. He had some problems and then sat there quite skeptically while I gave him instructions that got the whole thing printed out perfectly the first go. I kept telling him that I'd already made all the mistakes. I have, too.

S1 also got a real 'kick in the pants' today. He's been trying to take the theoretical (written) test for his driver's license. Here in Israel they recently changed everything about the testing procedure - who does it, where, when, and what questions are asked. Here's the kicker. They haven't even printed the booklets that you need to study to pass the test in English yet. They have them in Hebrew and Russian. But they are giving the test in English already. How do we know? S1 has already failed the new test twice.

He failed, utterly and entirely because he hasn't got access to the answers that they want on the test. *sigh* I cannot express my frustration adequately. The best thing I can say is that S1 has a fairly good attitude about it - and he's willing to just keep plugging. I can't ask any more of him than that.

The week is shaping up to be a madhouse, even more than others. Tomorrow the only thing I know for sure is that S1 is GOING to get to Be'er Sheva to use a gift certificate for the bookstore that he's had for some month and hasn't managed to use.

D3 is going to a birthday party, we think, Tuesday afternoon, to be picked up sometime Wednesday at a friend's home who is about halfway between here and there. She also has a riding lesson tomorrow afternoon. And our wholesaler is pressuring TH to meet Wednesday to pick up our food, despite the fact that Wednesday is almost completely impossible for us. TH would have to take the day off from work, and that would NOT be good.

I just had a brilliant idea. It might even work. Hmmmm.

I'd best end this, S3 is in the bathtub, but will be out soon for his bedtime story. And I could use some sleep myself.

I'm listening to The Band: Down South In New Orleans

:: 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