It's Nearly Shabbat

it is 6:30 p.m. in the holy city of safed.  last week nearly the whole clan showed up for shabbat.  my kids arrived at midnight on thursday.  the kids had napped in the car so we finally all fell asleep at 3:00 a.m.  i went out in the heat with my granddaughter to buy the fixings to make a cheesecake.  the kids wanted a baking project to do with their grandmother, zelda.  we had two major meltdowns until the cake was in the oven.  i nearly forgot to add the sugar from all the yelling and crying.

the sephardi grandmother, who is temporarily living downstairs with her husband ; heard all of the screaming and invited the granddaughter to go downstairs to help her make challah.  that was my addition to the shabbat meals.  the sephardi grandmother cooked everything else.  we were eleven adults with 6 active children and two babies, one of which was recently born.

this time, after lunch; the adults decided to separate the girls from the boys.  i got the boys.  i had wanted to take a nap but no such luck.  the boys built a fort with one of my most heavy mattress and loads of pillows and blankets.  they are currently on the floor in the living room.  i didn't have the energy this week to put them away.  the baby, my grandson, was quite sick.  my daughter-in-law said that he had bronchitis.  i figured that it wasn't contagious, so i allowed them to come and stay up here with me.  i spent the day cleaning the house.

their little Yorkie is still not house broken.  she gets along swimmingly with my small female dog but she piddles all over the house and on the mattresses.  i am constantly running around with a wet mop cleaning up after her.  i actually sat and played, 'trouble' with my grandson and his cousin.  i play to win but i always lose.  my grandson always wins.  the boys raided the pantry and helped themselves to tons of snacks.  they also brought more from downstairs.  it was overkill.  although i avoided the chips and bambas, i did hit the cherries and nuts pretty hard.  i think i ate all day long.

by the evening, the baby had a high fever.  i ran to all the neighbors for liquid aspirin. my daughter-i-law decided to take the baby to the emergency room after shabbat ended.  it was a balagon, as we say here, in the middle east.  they performed a corona swab test on him and were not very gentle.  they were very aggressive and very nasty to my daughter-in-law.  my son wanted to get back to jerusalem.  he just started a new job and really couldn't miss any more work. 

i fell asleep at around 1:00 a.m. with both of my older grandchildren hanging on to me for dear life.  i never heard the daughter-in-law come home.  i got up at 7:00 a.m. to take the dogs out.  i saw that everyone was home.  they all got up and got out by 8:30 a.m.  it was very tense.  i was exhausted.  the hospital called to say that the baby didn't have the corona.  they said he had some other type of virus.  whatever he had, i got later that day.  i had awful diarrhea and stomach cramps.  i think i was feverish, too.  i slept for most of the day.  i did manage to take the dogs out a couple of times but i laid on the mattress on the floor for the next two days.  i hardly drank anything and i couldn't eat anything, either.

the next day i managed to drink a bit of water.  i couldn't get it together to make myself a cup of tea.  i did make some rice and i managed to eat it.  the day after i ate more rice and some cherries.  it has taken me the entire week to get back on my feet.  i fasted yesterday for 25 hours.  it was only a day fast but i did my nightly 12 hour fast, first.  i was pretty hungry last night.  today i felt like i had been hit by a bus.  i made some turkey necks and lentils and rice to break the fast.  i also made some banana and plum oat flour muffins.  they were very yummy.  i made spelt spaghetti and meatballs for shabbat dinner.  my friend invited me to come by for lunch.  i haven't seen her all week.  i hope i will get out tomorrow to be with people.  wishing you all a good shabbos.