I'm grateful for: a really busy day; holding the baby - both babies - and being able to!; having most of my bed clear (move OVER Chamudah).

I really can't believe that I am still awake at about 3am, after staying awake all night last night. Yes, I really did. Yah, but anyway...

I wanted to say thanks to people who wrote about also having problems with sound sometimes. It's good to know I'm not alone.

I get comments sometimes, and I have the vague feeling that I ought to respond or at least acknowledge them, but have absolutely no idea what I should say or do. It bothers me. One of those 'lack of social skills' things.

In any event, I didn't sleep last night. I just didn't work out. So I saw S2 off with TH at 5am, read some news or diaries or something (I don't remember), and finally took a bit of a nap. I know it was a short one because I was woken up around 8:30am, or thereabouts. The friends of ours who have just had a baby needed to leave their three children (5, 3 and 1) here so the husband could drive his mother to the dr. in one city, then drive to a different city in a completely other direction to pick up wife and new baby. We all (none of us having slept enough or well) jumped up, showered, dressed, and/or ate breakfast as necessary and appropriate, and were ready when the three little ones showed up - dogs locked in different rooms and a few plans for how to get through the day.

The youngest one, Zack, is terribly afraid of the dogs, every time he comes here. After visiting for twenty-thirty minutes he is always okay, and wanders about not bothered by them (unless one of the bigger dogs knocks into him). So we prepared for his arrival by making sure all the dogs weren't anywhere in sight just at first. This was his first time being left here without a parent, which is a big enough deal.

The kids played with jigsaw puzzles (didn't actually put any together), and watched Finding Nemo, some Tailspin and Thomas the Tank Engine. They ate lunch, pulled Samantha's tail - that's the HUGE puppy. Zack picked up Kitten, but then cried when she didn't like it. She didn't scratch or bite him, he just didn't like that she didn't lie still.

When it was Zack's nap time I tried just laying him down, as his father had said we could, but it was really obvious that here without his parents he wasn't going to just lie down and nap, so I picked him up and walked with him, and in a very short time he had his head resting on my shoulder. It WASN'T a very short time before he fell asleep, and I walked, and walked, and stood and swayed, and walked and walked... It's been a very LONG time since I needed to do that. It's also been a very long time since I could even dream of being able to do it. So the accupuncture and Chinese herbs are working.

Yeaaa!

Zack napped for about an hour, and when he was asleep enough I could sit in one of the big office chairs and lean back so I wasn't holding him entirely by myself. I couldn't put him down though.

I really love holding babies, it wasn't anything I minded. I just wish the body could do more. I don't think I could hold S3 like that much after he was three or four months old. *sigh*

Anyway, mom and dad came for them mid-afternoon. They came with the new baby, Eliana Liat, who is an absolutely beautiful baby. Of course, aren't they all? I got to hold her and cuddle with her and stare into her tiny eyes. It was wonderful. Holding babies, the smaller the better, is very good for the soul, my soul anyway.

The whole family went home, and we were all pretty much ready to collapse as a whole. S1 was in the middle of making french fries and couldn't leave the oil, I got some progress on the mountain of laundry that had accumulated. S3 went out to let the goats out. We'd left the locked in the shed while we were watching the children, because there was no way we could cope with any sort of a goat emergency in addition to the three children.

Unfortunately I forgot that the boy goats need to be tied up (or they escape from the back yard), so S1 had to leave his hot oil and run out to help. A handful of other minor crises, I can't remember, and the horribly woman, BZ showed up at my front door. Oy!

Today's was a real beauty. She wanted to use our telephone because she had some long story about not being able to use her own. Don't ask, I have no clue, it made as much sense as anything a chronic liar with a bad memory might have come up with. The kicker was that in the middle of this whole thing, her cell phone rang and she answered it. I mean!

She chatted on her cell for what seemed quite a while (I got a fair amount of laundry sorted), then went to make her phone calls. I'd arranged it that the kids would clear out of the family room and she could call from there - both for privacy and because the phone's base station is in there, and the phone has really poor reception anyway. Did she make her calls in the family room? No, she went out into the hall where I could hear every word. She said she didn't want to disturb the kids. *sigh*

I suggested she could try talking in S3's room, which is right across the hall and might still be kind of decent with the phone, but no, she stood practically directly in front of me and yelled into the phone. Thus I know that the school had been sending home some kind of notes - complaints - about one of her sons, and she had an 'appointment' to call the school to talk about it.

I don't care if calling on a cell phone is a bit more expensive, wouldn't you think that kind of call would be worth it? If only not to invade someone else's home with your private business? *sigh* But, anyway...

She made another call, making an appointment for her boys to get a riding lesson at the same stable where I take my kids. I couldn't help but overhear her telling the instructor that she and I would be bringing the kids together in the future to save money ??? -- over my dead body.

It wouldn't save any money, anyway, they charge the same amount for a lesson regardless.

Finally she put the phone down and rather than leaving told me the most enormous cock-and-bull story about her ex-husband (the one who used to live here on the moshav) being a sociopath, because he lets the boys play computer games all the time and runs to a lot of debt. Whatever.

She doesn't like it that I'm not all sympathetic, and then says more and more crazy things to me to try and convince me of whatever point it is she has. Some of the things she says are so VERY bizarre. I wish I could remember them because I'm sure someone could use a laugh, but I have this filter that won't allow me to remember certain types of really insane speech. Probably good for me in the long run, but it means that she says these things and they go right outta my head.

I can't remember what finally got her going, as she stood in my front doorway NOT going for quite a while, and I wasn't going to just push her down the stairs (don't think I didn't think of it).

And, I can't remember the next thing. It was SUCH a full day. The phone rang off the hook at one point, after BZ had left. TH phoned about our kids riding lesson, and were they going to participate in the riding competition a week from Friday? I talked to various people about food orders, books, scheduling, dates. D2 phoned and I was dropping off as I talked to her, but I do remember telling her about the new baby, and some other stuff.

I napped for an hour or two and TH came home. I managed to get outside and feed the birds and give the goats some little snacks. That was good. And while I am not completely caught up on laundry, it all fits on the basket, and the clean, dry laundry is all folded except for the sheets (I can't fold sheets. Maybe that is coming?).

TH and I watched the last reconstructed episode of the Dr. Who episode Marco Polo tonight. I'm glad it was over, though it was fun to watch.

S2 phoned, he's got guard duty (his entire company has guard duty) and he's on until 8am. He was upset, crying a bit. I took it in stride and tried to jolly him out of it, but it seemed to make him more depressed and upset. So then I worked on being supportive, telling him he was doing a good job and that what he is doing IS important - even if it doesn't feel like it. That helped a little.

Part of the problem is that he's been paired with a fellow who speaks not a word of English, and they have about 50 Hebrew words in common between them. They are paired in order that they should keep each other awake, but in this case S2 was pretty despondent. I suggested that he could ask the fellow to teach him some Russian words. There is absolutely NOTHING an American can do to make a better, more positive impression with a Russian speaker, than to take an interest in learning Russian, knowing something about the history and/or geography of the F.S.U. and so on.

Americans are sorely mis-educated, when they aren't un-educated, about much of the world, and Russian speakers are more than a little bit sensitive about it. Mind you, I am talking about Russian speakers I know and know of in Israel. I can't generalize beyond that.

I'm also generalizing about Americans. If you are one of the small percentage who sought out and acquired some of that information, I am not talking about you. So please don't leave me snotty notes telling me about how Americans aren't so badly educated as I say.

I'm 1/2 kidding. Leave me snotty notes if you want. I just will lost some respect for whoever does it.

On a further side note, I keep referring to 'Russian speakers.' I don't really know how else to categorize them. Some people here refer to anyone who speaks Russian as 'Russian.' And if you are talking to someone from the Ukraine (for instance) you might just have insulted or offended them beyond measure. Not all Ukrainians, Georgians, Moldovans, and so on are like that, but enough are.

Some Russian speaker are actually Russian of course, but it's hard for those of us on the outside to know.

The majority, if not all Russian speakers are from the F.S.U. (Former Soviet Union) and within the family we sometimes refer to them as F.S.U.-ians. But I am never quite sure if that designation leaves out the actual Russians - although Russia was certainly part of the F.S.U. Well, Russian speakers, here, means people from that part of the world of whom the vast majority speak Russian. ...

So, that was a long and pointless digression. I hope someone enjoyed it.

I also hope that S2 manages to pull himself together and talk to his mate. It's going to be a long night otherwise, and he might even get a reputation for being stuck up (he is not, he is painfully shy). Also, I wish he would TRY to be a bit more positive. I know he's feeling awful in the cold at midnight doing guard duty with a stranger he can barely talk to. But I also know that he tends to dwell on the negative, and actively resists being cheered up or accepting support. What can you do?

Besides that, I got my room cleaned up a bit, and some stuff cleared out. Still got miles to go. Took photos of the baby and I thought I would try to post one, but I have no idea where the camera got off to. Children.

And it's going 4 really soon now, so I'd best stop writing and try to sleep. It shouldn't be too difficult.

I'm listening to birds screeching and crowing, the dryer running, the fan, and various other annoying mechanical noises. I hate that about summer.

:: 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