The Mundane

it is 7:00 p.m. in the holy city of zefat. shabbat ended a little while ago. i am pleased to report that i did all of the washing up. my dishes, cutlery, pots and pans and glasses are all clean. yeh! i didn't want to end up like last week with two sinks full.

it was a pretty miserable day. it rained and was just plain nasty for most of shabbat. i had the heat on for most of the time. the kids are all sick. i had the 'pleasure' of watching my grandson and son for most of the week. my grandson was easy compared to his cranky 24 year old dad.

i ran errands for him and kept him supplied with vitamin c, fresh squeezed orange juice, chicken soup, homeopathic flu remedy, and natural cough syrup. thank the Lord, that he went back to work on thursday. the doctor made a big mistake by prescribing him antibiotics. his illness was viral and both his wife and son caught it. the antibiotics weakened him and gave him diahrea, to boot.

i finally was freed on thursday and my grandson went to his other grandma. i watched him until 9:30 a.m. and then made a mad dash to the seniors' day center. they were so happy and grateful to see me. i had second thoughts about going but i was so glad that i did. their regular caregiver was out of town and i think they appreciated a familiar face.

a young woman volunteer brought in three guinea pigs to show the old folks. they were so cute. they were a lot larger than the pair we had years ago, when zvi was just a lad. i learned on thursday that it was not good to bathe them. go know!

afterwards, i met up with a friend and we went together to make a shiva call. i hadn't been able to attend the funeral because i was taking care of sahar. i stayed a bit longer than i had intended and finally made my way to the supermarket at 5:00 p.m. i hadn't eaten all day long and i was feeling a bit woozy. i wanted to buy some things for shabbat that i can't get up here.

i caught a taxi home because i was really spent. i tried calling my sister in zefat because she was due back from india. no one was home. i called my niece in new york because it was her birthday and i think i may have bummed her out a bit. the poor thing turned 30 and is still not married. in her circles it's considered tragic. i'm sure she'll meet the right one eventually. i'm more sure, that she will aprreciate marriage more because she waited so long.

i had to watch sahar all morning long on friday. i put him in his playpen and kept him near me while i prepared the shabbat meals. he seemed to get a kick out of my peeling the tomatoes. his mom went to a bris and didn't get back until nearly 1:30 p.m. it took me a while to get everything done because i only have two working gas burners.

i managed to have two long conversations with two different friends while i watched him. he was pretty mellow for a sick baby. the doctor said he has the flu. i made a lovely meal inspite of finishing up moments after candlelighting. i really hussled at the end. the food was pretty tasty this week. i went back to my south beach diet on thursday. i finally weighed myself and i gained over ten pounds. it is back to lots of protein and veggies again.

i made tuna steaks in a piquant tomato sauce with peppers and potatoes. i made potted chicken and meatballs in a sephardi tomato sauce with string beans. i cooked plain white rice for gal. i made a green leafy salad with lemony dressing. i also made the cooked sephardi tomato relish. this time i didn't make it too hot. i made a small amount of baba ganush, a mayonnaise and eggplant dish. i made the usual cooked cubed beets in lemon and a guacomole with avocado and hard cooked eggs. i made a cole slaw and ate the entire thing by myself. thank goodness, that mayonnaise is allowed on south beach.

the kids came upstairs at 7:00 a.m. this morning. they usually come up around 8:00 a.m. zvi decided to catch an early minyan. gal was really under the weather so i watched sahar until 9:00 a.m. that's about when zvi came home and did kiddush. i served them both, boiled white and sweet potatoes with boiled eggs. we also, had all of the salads, left. i had a piece of fish, a boiled egg and some salad. i had a hand full of nuts for dessert.

the kids went downstairs at 10:00 a.m. to sleep. they left sahar with me until 2:00 p.m. he only slept for about an hour. he was a bit crabby and hardly ate anything. he did play very nicely for hours. i gave him two copper bells and he kept himself busy with them for the entire day. they were my mom's. sometimes, she would ring them to announce dinner. it was her way of being 'over the top'.

i was really looking forward to lying back and watching some t.v. this evening. zvi just came in to inform me that the sick duo are well enough to go to rosh pina and are leaving sahar with me. do i cry? or do i insist that they shlepp him over to the other grandma for a few hours? oh decisions, decisions!!!!

i finally caught up with my sister in zefat but i was too pressured on friday afternoon to speak for long. i would have liked to walk over there today with sahar but he was too cranky and sick to go out. my older sister in california, recently mentioned that my blog has been pretty mundane lately. i was beginning to feel a bit down when another reader told me that she really got off on my sense of humor. she actually told me that it made her day.