Mondays

it's 9.00 a.m.. in the holy city of zefat. i jumped out of bed a little while ago and saw that it was nearly 9:00 a.m. i must have been dreaming this morning. i quickly brushed my teethe, got dressed, and ran downstairs to get sahar. it was very quiet downstairs.

at first, i thought that the kids had already left. i found sahar alone, in his t.v. room, playing with his toys. he immediately came running over to me and i took him to change his very, dirty, diaper. gal informed me that he was going over to safta miriam's. i felt a bit slighted at first, but then i realized that i had the entire day to create my dairy extravaganza for shavuot. i was a free bird. why fight it?

everyone knows that lasagna and cheese cake always taste better the next day. in this case, after 2 days. i am really tired this morning. i didn't fall asleep until after 3:30 a.m. i have to, seriously, stop drinking coffee after 10 p.m. there wasn't a decent thing on the tellie last night, either. i have become accustomed to falling asleep watching t.v. mom used to wake up as soon as i turned the t.v off.

it feels like a heat wave. the house is even warm for a change. i am feeling a bit feverish. the kids were having some kind of spat before they left. i put sahar into his car seat while they worked it out. i was determined not to interfere. i did tell zvi that he was acting like a 2 year old. one of the 'perks' of living with your married kids.

sahar wasn't all that eager to go off with them, either. he was planning on having another quiet day alone with me, the dogs and the sprinklers. a little quite time never hurt anyone. i don't make him perform all day long. i sing and dance with him all the time and review things. at the other house. he is asked to repeat a trick about 10 or 12 times until he becomes unglued. he does love that bunch a lot. they all adore him, too.

on shabbat day, he ordered them all to remove the new baby from its baby carrier, so that he could sit in it. he even put the infant's pacifier in his mouth. everyone laughed and played along. even his aunt, the new mother, showed no signs of indignation. this wouldn't have played out that way in my family. i think that we, ashkanazim, are more uptight, in general.

i definately, need to rest a bit more before i start to cook. i'll do laundry, instead. i did do the bulk of the laundry last week but i have some sheets and covers that smell very 'doggie'. one of the 'perks' of being a dog owner. ha ha!

last night, i applied a little too much orange oil to the dogs necks and they both had real hissie fits. i thought that i had, inadvertently, poisoned them. i had read a long time ago, that orange oil repels fleas and ticks. i hate using the flea collars because of their toxicity. i don't want them around sahar. i hope this works. i try to check them every day. lately, i've had a few ticks crawling about on me. what a thrill! i don't believe that these are the kind of ticks that you can get lyme disease from. they seem to be pretty benign.

how charming of me to be talking about ticks and cheesecake in the same conversation! isn't life so precious!

i got to speak with my niece in india for a moment yesterday. i had been thinking about her all day. it's too hard to make a phone call when sahar is with me. he grabs the markers from the drawers and starts to scribble on the floors and on his socks. anyway, after sahar went with his mom to town, i saw that my niece had tried to chat with me on the computer at the same time that i was thinking about her. ooh, scarey!

the house is in pretty decent shape so i won't have to do a major clean up job. i love to arrange lots of greenery around the house for shavuot. the only problem is that it will all dry out rather quickly in this heat. one year i, actually, strung up plastic flowers. how tacky was that! there is an abundance of beautiful roses all over the neighborhood, all mine for the picking. i love to add the fresh rosemary, lavender and mrytle from the garden. it looks and smells great too.

i think i'll throw the roast in the pan. it can simmer while i hang laundry. life is sweet!