Sound the Alarm

Good Moed! I'm exhausted but elated with how Yom Tov is going so far. Here's a picture of the new Succah decoration from our Succah this year. (It's hard to see because of the stuff on the Succah walls, but it's really pretty and has pink and lilac doves with little bells hanging from the top). 

It's a Jtownunderground family tradition to purchase a new decoration each year for the Succah. I don't really know when that tradition began, but after 30+ years of building the same Succah back home in Queens, my Mom realized that the decorations weren't as durable as the metal frame. So, a few years back, she decided to start the tradition of buying a new decoration each year. Granted, some of the same decorations will always be put up in their Succah. Namely, the glittered egg carton my brother made when he was in Nursery, the apple windchime and the Ushpezin charts we pin to the Succah walls.  

I'm a bit of a minimalist when it comes to decorations, so we have only about a handful hanging up. I think it's nicer to start small and to build up your decoration arsenal, and since these things tend to break in bad weather or if I pack them incorrectly, it's better to see what wehave each year and then go out and buy new ones if needed. We went to the Mall on Erev Chag to see Pidgeon's exhibition and we passed the table with Succah decoration lights. I ALWAYS wanted to hang Christmas lights in the Succah and so it made me want to buy a whole bunch of lights for our Succah. But, I decided to hold off since we are running low on electrical outlets and they have been predicting a rainy Succot season. 

Erev Yom Tov was very busy in the house, I still can't believe I managed to accomplish all that I did from Sunday - Monday. I decided to designate Sunday as my cooking day, and I made lemon garlic chicken (fantastic new recipe that came out really well!), brown rice, string beans and onion stir fry, cauliflower kugel, a brownie tart and carrot kugel muffins. Monday, I had an early morning Dr.'s appointment and then Pidgeon picked me up and we ran all our errands. We went to Pe'er to pick up Challot for our meal, then we went to Malha mall to check out his exhibit and get breakfast to go from Aroma, we stopped off at Falcon so I could get the ingredients for the sweet and sour meatballs, and finally we headed home so I could finish cooking, do some work and clean a bit. I made the sweet and sour meatballs, grilled the steaks for the steak salad and made the topping for the brownie tart. I spent a lot of time on my feet and was wiped out and afraid I wouldn't make the walk back to our apartment after dinner by Pidgeon's Aunt. We decided to drive them before Yom Tov so that I could rest up before dinner.

Succot night was really nice, and their Succah was bursting with capacity! There were 26 people in all, and with 10+ kids running around all night, I could barely concentrate. I'm also experiencing the inability to eat as much as I'm used to. My mother-in-law the Doula said that it's because I'm towards the end of the pregnancy and my uterus is so big that it's not allowing my stomach to expand as it used to. That sounds good, I just hope it will be accompanied by some weight loss before the birth. I was feeling pretty lousy during dinner and I started getting some braxton hicks contractions, so I had Pidgeon pour me a glass of white wine and started to count the minutes. The wine, combine with my exhaustion, really did a number on me so I ended up on the couch just trying to relax. Pidgeon's nieces and nephews were whirling all around me, his cousins stopping by to chat and keep me company while Pidgeon's oldest niece decided to have a heart-to-heart with me about her little brothers. I managed to gather my strength for the walk home and we headed out by 10:00 p.m. Since my friends Jen and Zvi are in town for the Chag, and staying only 2 blocks away from his Aunt's house, we stopped by to say hello. We ended up standing outside, chatting and catching up for almost an hour, when I realized that I had 15 minutes until my shot and a 45 minute walk home. We said our goodbyes and headed home.

At this point, my feet look like loafs of bread baking out of my Rockport sandals and it's painful to take a step. Since most of the walk was downhill though, I was able to get into Baka without much of an incident. But, at the bottom of Reuven street, I was really starting to feel tired. It was a tremendous effort to just put one foot in front of the other, and I had to hold onto Pidgeon for support. Fortunately, I made it inside the house and literally stripped, had Pidgeon take off my sandals, and began icing in no time. I wasn't too late with the shot, which was good, and as soon as it was over we went to bed.

Pidgeon's alarm went off at 8:00 a.m. yesterday morning and I decided to be a good wife and made sure he was awake so he could go to shul. I didn't join him and instead, spent the morning getting ready for our guests. I put everything for the Succah on the dining room table, made the salad, washed the fruit and cut everything up for dessert, and just generally swept and tidied up for our guests. Pidgeon got home from shul about two hours before lunch and helped me set everything else up. By the time Mandy and Ivan got here, Pidgeon was sacked out on the couch and I was reading the September issue of O magazine with my feet up on the coffee table.

Lunch was really, really nice and a lot of fun. Mandy is due in 2 weeks and we had a great time comparing bellies! She has the cutest little outies and my belly button is still ambivalent, with a piece of the bottom trying hard to jut out while the top just remains inside. Pidgeon thinks I'm gonna pop up like a turkey timer but I think this is going to be the extent of my belly button changing. I'm no longer surprised by what's going on with my body, although my former generous love handles are disappearing rather quickly and that's not good for me. If they recede any further, I'm going to have to find another place to do my shot. And, to be honest, injecting myself in my thigh just isn't something I want to do. I'm going to try my best to work with whatever stomach fat I can still find and, hopefully, that will be okay for the next six weeks!

I never thought I would wish for stomach fat in my entire life, my how things change!

Last night, Pidgeon and I spent the evening cleaning up after our meal. I had a ton of washing to do as I used a lot of serving pieces and, since I was so tired from the past two days, we decided to stay in and just watch TV. Pidgeon had to be up early today for work, so we went to bed fairly early.

At 3:00 a.m., I was awoken by a house alarm blaring nearby. I counted the minutes, waiting for someone to close it off, but nothing happened. I made a quick trip to the bathroom and tried to sleep through the noise. I was able to do that until 5:30 a.m., when the alarm woke me one more time. I couldn't figure out if the house alarm was coming from closer to Emek Refaim or behind us closer to Derech Beit Lechem. Either way, it was very disruptive and extremely annoying. I couldn't believe the alarm had been ringing for at least 2 1/2 hours! Well, was I in for a rude awakening! Would you believe that the alarm rang and rang until 10:00 a.m. this morning! I was so pissed since it kept me up for most of the night, and can't even express how thankful I was when silence finally fell onto this stretch of Baka. Now, you'd think I would have just gone back to sleep at that point, but I was so up and agitated that rest was far from the plan.

I got up with Pidgeon, finished washing any leftover dishes in the sink, put away all the dry dishes and serving pieces and then packed his lunch. Since he works only half days during Chol Hamoed, I didn't pack him a big lunch. Especially since there is no Succah at work, I had to make sure that I didn't send him with anything that was a Mezonot. So, he got a quarter of leftover garlic lemon chicken and a big bottle of lemonade crystal light. 

It was pitch black outside when Pidgeon left and the rain was starting to come down in little drops. The sky was super threatening and I was expecting the heavens to open up and really give us a good dousing. Well, the drenching rain held back and we only got a few drops. Fortunately, Pidgeon brought in our Succah table and chairs last night so that it wouldn't get ruined. And, I'm thrilled that the rain swept in because it brought much cooler temperature. When I finally get up and dressed today, I'm looking forward to putting on a long-sleeve t-shirt and maybe a pair of maternity jeans.

Well, Pidgeon should be home soon and I could use a shower. Wishing everyone who is keeping second day of Yom Tov (and therefore, NOT reading this right now) a Chag Sameach and everyone else a Moed Tov from Baka!

Attention Online Shoppers

I am feeling pretty accomplished right now, and it's only 8:45 a.m.! Believe me, it's a much better feeling than I had late last night, when I was overwhelmed and had no idea how I was going to get everything done in such a short time frame. 

Since we woke up at 6:45 a.m. this morning, I've helped get Pidgeon out the door to work, put in my fruit and vegetable order for Yom Tov at Gil's on Derech Beit Lechem, confirmed my online Supermarket order and paid, put in a call to my Dr. at the Medical Center, ordered Pidgeon some stuff off of Amazon and shipped it to my Grandmother in the States, responded to a work e-mail that required a lot of detail and responded to some personal e-mails that were just languishing in my inbox. 

Now I'm ready for my nap :)

Pidgeon spent the better part of last night working on his final project, which will also be on display at the Malha Mall in Jerusalem throughout Succot. I'm very excited about that, the project is extremely impressive and Pidgeon is very talented (I am NOT biased!) We were hoping to go tonight for the opening of the project, but with company coming to us for Yom Tov lunch, a Succah I still need to decorate, a TON of cooking to do, cleaning the apartment, and another load of laundry that needs to get done on top of Dr. appointments Pidgeon and I both have today and tomorrow, it just didn't seem possible. Initially, I needed tonight to go to the Supermarket to buy all the ingredients I need to cook for Chag. We're only two couples, but since it's Yom Tov, I want to do something special.

On the menu for Tuesday lunch is as follows:

First Course

Grilled steak salad with warm shallot dressing

Main Course

Lemon and Garlic chicken (not sure how I'm making this yet but will find a recipe somewhere)

cauliflower kugel

carrot kugel muffins

sweet and sour meatballs with brown rice

sauteed string beans and onions

Dessert

Brownie tart

kiwi and grapes

Pidgeon thinks I'm going overboard, but my philosophy is that if I'm going to cook I'd like to do it once. Make plenty. Have enough leftovers to eat during the week. With the way the holiday falls this year, I feel like I'm constantly in the kitchen cooking! It's getting to be a bit much for me, so I'd rather go overboard now and have plenty to eat during Chol Hamoed.

So, Pidgeon suggested I do online shopping, but I had a very bad experience with the City Direct folks and decided not to use them anymore. I think they need some more experience - and to grow more -before I'm ready to try them again. Last time we ordered, they sent us the wrong things, forgot to send us other things, and then never returned our calls when we tried to touch base about the mix ups. At the end of the month, though, they had no problem charging my credit card for the full amount. I ended up eating the cost and paying the bill - eventhough I still have a huge bottle of Sucrazit I'll never use sitting in my cabinet - and just decided to move on.

Someone on Janglo sent me the online site for SuperSol in Jerusalem, and since I am so pressed for time during the next two days, we decided to try it. Unfortunately, the site is 100% in Hebrew and can only be viewed with Internet Explorer. My Hebrew is not so great and my Mac doesn't have Internet Explorer, so I had to wait for Pidgeon to come home. Fortunately, I was all prepared with my list so it didn't take that long to pull together. Unfortunately, the prices were pretty steep and my chicken and meat order was about 1/3 of the entire bill. And, I didn't even order that much of each! But, since I can't easily walk to the Supermarket and card home all my shopping, and Pidgeon is working a 9 hour day today, this was a good option. They have already called twice to confirm delivery time, so I'm hoping there will be no snafus and everything will work out great.

Weekend Update

We had a very enjoyable Shabbos. We went to Pidgeon's parents for dinner Friday night since his brother and family is in for the Chag from London. We were 14 adults and 7 children. It was a madhouse, but it was really a lot of fun. Now, Pidgeon's sister-in-law's parents and brother, sister-in-law and niece were also at the meal. They are really nice people but speak only Hebrew or French, so my conversations with them are very limited. The niece is about 1 1/2 old and she's already walking around, crawling and speaking halting words here and there. Pidgeon's nephew is about the same age and doing the same thing, although he's not walking as well as his cousin.

My mother-in-law's apartment has 2 sets of stone steps. 6 steps upstairs, 7 stairs downstairs.

Stone. Steps.

And, with all the adults eating at the table, and all the children running around and playing, the two children under the age of 2 were unsupervised on the steps. And, would you believe that I was lucky enough to get seated in the chair that has direct line of sight to the steps? 

Well, I watched as the niece walked up the steps and, as she's really unsteady on her feet, teeter precariously numerous times. Now, I am a VERY nervous person to begin with. I know, recipe for disaster for my own child who will have to learn that getting hurt is part of life, blah, blah, blah.

However, I am a BIG fan of putting a gate in front of steps until I know my child is steady enough on their feet to be able to walk up and down without taking a dangerous tumble.

Did I mention that these are STONE STEPS????!!

Well, I gasped a few times as I watch her almost fall, and Pidgeon's sister and brother looked at me like I was crazy. Pidgeon's brother, who is Dad to 4 + 1 on the way, told me that I need to relax. That it's not healthy for me to be so jumpy. Pidgeon's sister, whose heart was racing with my gasping, glared at me like I was some lunatic who was overreacting. 

And, the parents of this little girl, just continued to sip their wine and enjoy their meal.

So, I turned to Pidgeon and said, I'm just not going to look anymore. Because, if the parents don't care, then why should I?

I went back to my meal, went back to my conversations, but couldn't pull my eyes away from the scene.

Five minutes later, the little girl tumbled down the entire flight of stone steps. Of course, I gasped and screamed that she was falling, and this time her Mother got up off her chair and ran to help her. At that point, she was already on the floor, screaming and crying her head off, a red, nasty bump starting to form over her eye.

Her Father, however, kept saying over and over in Hebrew: Zeh Klum. Lo Karah Klum (translation - it's nothing, nothing happened). 

The kid was hysterical for a bit and the bump over her eye will definitely be there for a few days,  but she avoided the steps for the rest of the evening. 

I felt terrible for this kid, and for her parents for being so lax about her safety. I understand teaching children the right way to navigate steps, but don't we have a responsibility to do it in the right manner? Someone should have been at the bottom of the steps to make sure, if she fell, that she would be caught. 

Am I just being over cautious? Will I mess up our kids because I don't want them tumble down stone steps? I mean, she is LUCKY she didn't crack her head open on my mother-in-law's stone floor.

Well, at least my mother-in-law agreed with me at the end of the evening. So did Pidgeon. I'm just going to have to figure out that middle ground where I allow my children to discover life on their own without doing anything too dangerous.

Anyway, I'm off to get something to eat. My body is still trying to regulate after Yom Kippur and I get starving at random hours of the day and I also experience lack of appetite during other times. Weird.

Yom Tov from Baka!