Friday was busy as usual, although I didn’t go to the shops, but instead got deliveries of challahs and bagels and some fruit & veggies.

First thing in the morning I finished cooking for Friday night, and then we pulled up our sleeves and cleaned the oven.
It took us a long time but I was very happy with the outcome. Such a good clean that the trays look brand new.

Then Shabbat was so much fun. Each one of us woke up in different times, most of us slept in. We just played for the majority of the day. It started of with “Charades”, which was hilarious to play. They imitated us, we imitated them, it was such a good laugh. Then we ate lunch and played some more games like Flight 501, Dobble, Chess and more.

Hopefully when it’s all over and everyone will be able to tell their story about these times, they will remember how fun it was, and not just the bad parts…

Image credit: Alan Light

I started my day too early… at 4am.

There was heavy rain that woke me up, my daughter woke up as well, so I found myself reading together “The lion, the witch and the wardrobe”.

After a while we tried to get back to sleep… she did. I couldn’t. So I started cooking at 7am. Big Minestrone soup & Pasta Bolognese.

I saw there was no bread left so decided to make pita bread.

It’s the first time ever I tried to make it. I was surprised how easy it was. Soooo yummm !!!

I printed out some good Pesach games that I found online, laminated them and cut them so we’ll have new games for the long chag.

Then, I bleached the kitchen floor so it will be ready for pessach.

I noticed we all needed exercise. So we opened “Just Dance” Xbox game and started to move.

All of us did it. It was great music, with energetic exercise.

Is it just me or my days seem longer than ever? Can’t wait for Shabbat.

Second Pesach cleaning day…

Decided to set up the Pesach table and put the dishes on, instead of swapping the everyday dishes to Pesach ones, because nobody comes or goes anyway…

Decided to clean the fridge. Took everything out. Took apart all the plastics and started to play with water, bleach and soap. My daughter & I scrubbed all the pieces from inside. My husband joined the party and moved the fridge out of its niche and cleaned on top & underneath it.

It took us a few hours but now I can say it looks new & feels fantastic.

We took a break.

My son watered the veggie patch (on his recess). He called me to show that the new seeds grew a tiny bit. What a beautiful & quick start!

Had to make dinner. Oh… wait. I have another child, that had remote learning all day. Now, that school day was over for that one, I decided to delegate dinner preparation to him.

He made cheese borekas from rice paper rolls which is his favourite, my husband made some salad and my daughter made delicious quick’n easy pancakes.

Wowww! It’s the first time I actually made no effort for a meal. And what a fantastic meal. Hmmmm…. I love that idea.

We learn new things every day.

The inevitable pessach cleaning had to start somewhere…

Let’s begin with the hardest tasks, I announced.

So I started with the games cupboard and its mess, chess pieces everywhere, instructions without their games and more surprises. I managed to organise it neatly then moved to the coates cupboard which had such a big mess underneath. Ticked that as well.

While doing that, I sent my daughter to sort out…… PAM PAM PAM…… my worst nightmare: the socks. We have a special blue box, that its job is to keep the single socks.

I don’t know about you, but it seems like there are more single socks than pairs, and the pile is getting bigger on every washing. I don’t get it. How come the single socks disappear, not on the way to the washing… but inside the washing machine? Is that a big hungry washing machine or what?

Hooray!

After 2 hours of sorting it was done.

We had to rest after that, and became so hungry, so we decided to make some yummy vegetarian dumplings! They are my favourite! It’s a long and messy job, but we eventually made plenty of them. We ate them with an Israeli salad on the side. Just Delicious.

Hope we will be able to organise our lives like we do on Pesach. Only because we have to…

I woke up early. Optimistic. Made a coffee. I looked outside to see my new lettuce is started growing.
What a good start for the day…

One child had distance learning.
Had a full-on day of Dr. Appointments on the phone / Skype which was busy and weird. Then had parent-teacher interviews that brought me a bit of Nachas and happy feeling came to visit in this stressful day.

In between, I tried to occupy my daughter with Sims, that started to get into progress (now, we have a family, and we bought a land and started building the house)
Getting better at it.

I went out for a walk and saw this an amazing rose in the front garden.

That made me feel there’s hope somewhere.

While doing that my beautiful daughter felt stress & ordered dinner for all of us, so I won’t cook. For me, it was a wonderful surprise.

Such a relief.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.

After having fun in the tent during the day, the boys decided to sleep in it. Thinking they probably won’t follow through… to my surprise
Sunday morning, I went to look for them, they were actually sleeping outdoor in the tent.

Here is the evidence for it. Well, at least somebody used the tent 🙂

Then we decided to have a dance party, we hanged some fairy lights in the darkest room and played music, danced a little. It was fun, but last only an hour.

Then I heard the rain, I looked outside & I realized the tent was still outside so I ran to get whatever was in the tent, all the blankets, games, books pillows, etc. And tried to bring everything undercover.

In 2 seconds I was totally wet.

Big changes are coming quickly

In the meantime, we were looking for new games on the Xbox.
We found Sims and started to figure it out… not an easy task…

Just like our new life in lockdown, that we definitely need to get used to… Good luck to us!

Friday was total exhaustion. I Had a Migraine.
Had to rest most of the day.

It looks amazing, besides the fact that we are missing one piece.
We moved everything in order to find it… but no success.

Shabbat (Saturday) was so much fun, first thing in the morning we tried to finish the puzzle. We did. Finally. At noon.

Well, I actually expected to lose more than one piece , since the puzzle was sitting on the living room table for more than 7 months and moved more than a few times for entertaining people for lunch.

Today all four of us tried their best efforts to put pieces in and fill in the empty spaces.
We were very proud to finish for the first time ever a 6000 pieces puzzle.

A few months ago, one of the neighbors had a garage sale, and we bought a tent for $10.
(we are not camping people, so I knew we probably won’t be using it, but for that amount I didn’t mind to having it.)

Today was such a beautiful day and we were looking to do things together around the house. All of a sudden I remembered it…

After having lunch, we built the tent in our back yard. We brought some pillows, blankets, games, books and snacks. We sat in the shade & had a fantastic afternoon.

Then came back again to look and appreciate the puzzle and our long lasting efforts.

I think that what we should take with us is: look at this time of self isolation and appreciate it as a memorable experience.

Thursday

Everyone found it really hard to wake up. Like every week, but the sun came out to give us a bit of motivation…

Remote learning for both kids was on again.

Today we’ve experienced 2 new things :

1. First remote test
2. Parent-teacher interviews via phone.

That was very awkward. But we can live with that.

Today, I tried to avoid cooking for Shabbat… so I managed to progress with the puzzle. AGAIN.

Then, I had enough so I had no choice and started cooking.

After school time was over, we baked some challahs. The smell was fantastic.

And then decided to have some more fun by making Pretzels – for the first time, soooo yummy.

To finish the day with a bit of optimism in the air we watched Frozen 2.

Haven’t watched a movie for a while…
I noticed that besides the beautiful story, the Disney animation work was incredible.

My conclusion from the movie is that we are going “into the unknown… into the unknown….”

Hopefully like in all Disney movies, these times will have a good and happy ending.

Remote learning for both kids…

(Actually it’s not exactly 3 days of isolation because I didn’t add Saturday and Sunday to this … but who’s counting)

It means that I get time by myself. Finally.

So I closed the living room door. Listening to the quiet. I opened the radio app and listened to the sound of music. I was folding 4 loads of laundry.
When I finished, I danced my way to put the folded ones in the cupboards.
Then I decided to clean a bit (still listening to my music)

Cooked some lunch.
And then came my highlight of the day… going out.
Yayyyy. After days that I didn’t get dressed properly or got do any shopping, I am out to pick up my ordered meat.
So much fun, that I decided to pick up some fruit and vegetables on the way and come back to the nest.

After the kids finished their school day, we sat down to eat dinner.
Then I realised how hard it is to be locked.

My teenagers started fighting and teasing each other, all I could do was
tell them to stop & pray that they will learn to respect each other.

We all need to learn that…

Respect means a positive feeling or action shown towards someone.

SO if you are sick don’t go outside to play or exercise. Respect the community that wants to stay healthy.
Don’t do things on purpose towards others.

Always imagine what would have happened if it was the other way.

Another relaxing day around the house…

Started off with one child having distance learning, while I kept the other occupied by trying to reconnect with the land by watering our veggie patch & harvesting our orange tree that produces so many oranges.

Then we tried the oranges and realised they are so sweet and delicious.
Let alone that made our day much better.

People say that hugging trees is the best medicine against anxiety, or that it increases levels of the oxytocin hormone. This hormone is responsible for feeling calm and emotional bonding. When hugging a tree, the serotonin and dopamine hormones make you feel happier.

So we tried it a bit… it’s definitely brought us a big laugh.

Our 6000pcs puzzle is heading to completion.
Normally we work on it over the weekends.
We now have the opportunity to finish it until the upcoming weekend (very high expectations) so we try really hard.

Then we needed to get out a little, so we did some street art with tape and chalk:

It was fun.
My teenagers admitted it.

I can now go to sleep with a big smile on my face.