Wake Me Up Before You Go Go

thursday morning : i don't know what time i got to sleep last night. it was really cold and i was too tired to get out of bed and put on a heater. the dogs were buried under the comforter and didn't move. zvi woke me up at 7:45 a.m. i was glad he did because i was on babysitting detail at 8:30 a.m. while gal went to get a blood test. i was afraid that i might oversleep. gal offered to take the baby to her mother but i didn't want him to have to brave the cold weather so early in the morning. it is getting a lot easier to care for him. he spends more time now playing in his crib or on the bed and doesn't need to be held as much. my motto has always been "let sleeping dogs and babies, lye".


'saharkush', as i call him, just woke up. i will give him a little 'alone' time before i take him out of the porto crib. he has found his hand and loves to put it in his mouth. he gets a lot of pleasure from this but can also get very frustrated. he can lift his head up now and is pretty active. the other day while he was in my arms, he managed to get himself into an upright position. pretty amazing! i can see some motion and hear some noise, but until i hear a whimper, i will stay right here at the computer.

i am listening to my soap, 'the young and restless'. they are doing a memorial service for cassie, the teenager, who they killed off of the show. i can't believe how much i cried watching her die. i am an emotional sap.

thursday night: it's 3:30 a.m. and i'm ready to crawl into bed. after baby sitting for sahar, i made gal, her favorite lunch of french fries and tuna salad. i use ready made frozen fries. she actually likes them. i then, went downstairs and threw in about 3 batches of laundry. gal and her sister wanted to cook in my kitchen so i decided to clean it up. my little outcove kitchen, where i actually cook, was trashed. the dairy toaster oven was covered in grease and the large stove was no better. all the counters were covered with assorted pots and pans from the previous shabbat. some were clean and others were not. i started to clean the toaster oven and one thing lead to another and before i knew it, i was doing a pesach cleaning and pulling out all the stops. i reached for the windex, and oven cleaner and some type of mildew cleaner, all very caustic. i didn't stop for a moment. i didn't drink or eat anything for about 12 hours. and the scary thing is that i didn't even think about it. i had no sensations of hunger or thirst or exhaustion. i felt no pain. i just kept pushing on. i just sat down and had a cup of coffee and ate a plain yogurt. i probably didn't lose any weight because i didn't eat anything today.

friday morning: gal just came down to start the cooking. she needed the fish. it's just 9:00 a.m. it's really a very normal time to start the preparations, considering we start the shabbat at 4:oo p.m. i already set the table last night and prepared the chanukah and shabbat menorahs. i told gal that i needed to rest for another half an hour before i could start my day. i heard sahar crying, so i ran upstairs to watch him for a bit while his mom started to cook. we decided that it was best if gal did the cooking upstairs with the baby.

i was really feeling a bit dizzy from lack of sleep and too many cleaning agents. i didn't think that i would be able to run down to the grocery to buy the challahs but i got my second wind and managed. by the time i got back home, both sisters were in high gear. they were like a tag team from wrestling. they each came down a dozen times or more to request some spice or pan or item. i did less cooking, but it was a lot more work for me.

gal made two types of fish with potatoes, three types of eggplant salads, and a tomato relish that took about 3 hours to cook. and then she was done! she was too tired to do any thing else. i was still doing my last minute spring cleaning but stopped to threw in a pot of chicken thighs and chicken schnitzel. i also made a small piece of meat with beans. i scrambled to bake a simple white cake, made an avocado salad, boiled a bunch of eggs, threw together a corn salad, which went untouched, cooked some beets, whipped up some non dairy cream and washed the strawberries. we ran out of potatoes and i was about to make a mad dash back to the store, but orital's husband saved the day. he cooked some at home before he came over. at 3:00 p.m. we put all the cooked food on the hot plate and realized that no one had made the rice. we decided that we could manage without the rice and the sisters took their showers. i had to forgo mine. i quickly threw on a shabbat moo moo and cut up an israeli salad.

friday night: the girls got all dolled up and took the baby out for a stroll. i put out the napkins, goblets and cutlery. the girls came back shivering. it had turned really cold outside and the house wasn't much warmer, even with the two electric heaters running. gal put out all the salads and the men came home from shul. i served the hot food and the tuna was really hot. i must have gotten a piece of the chili pepper. no one had any room for cake but the strawberries and whipped cream was a big success. everyone enjoyed the wines that zvi brought back from his work. i think gal enjoyed the wine a little too much. i kept following her from room to room to make sure that she wouldn't drop the baby. everyone went to sleep in a good mood and i cuddled with the dogs on the t.v. couch and read the magazine for a while and then fell asleep on the couch, as usual.

saturday night- shabbat has just ended and we lit the chanukah menorahs. my son and his brother-in-law thought about playing 'spin the dreidel' for chocolate coins, but ended up playing electronic monopoly, instead. gal and her sister went upstairs to bathe little sahar. my family isn't coming over tonight for latkes so i think i will take it easy. i didn't finish washing the dishes but i can deal with that. i'm not the type who can't go to sleep with a sink full of dirty dishes. actually, i am fading. i feel like a wind up toy whose batteries are dying. i got up at 6:30 a.m. this morning and needed some coffee desperately. i drank about three cups and read my shabbat magazine. the weather was quite stormy and it was definately a day to be inside. gal and orital came downstairs with the baby for hot drinks. we all shmoozed for a while and then i said my prayers before the men came home from shul. gal set the table and took out all the salads. after lunch, everyone went for a nap while i stayed with the baby. he was almost asleep in his carriage so while i read some psalms, i rocked him back and forth. cloie, the dog, was fast asleep in my lap. last night the dogs were hyperventilating from all the thunder. i gave each one a dose of rescue. cloie was crouched down low in front of the doorway. she wanted to go downstairs to the bomb shelter.

i don't think that i am capable of doing one more thing tonight. i think that we will have a family dinner here tomorrow night for my mom's memorial. i am too tired to even think up a menu now. i pulled out some recipes and we'll see how much energy i have tomorrow. i might make a quiche or we might end up eating fried potato pancakes. i don't do anything that involves using yeast so that limits me condsiderably. i wish you all a good night, a good week! a good new month and a happy chanukah! check out adam sandler's and tom lehrer's chanukah songs on you-tube. they'e a hoot!