Friday was normal.
Went shopping for Shabbat.
Did some catching up with family and friends over the phone.

Lucky we can rest over the weekend.

Most of the time we worked on the jigsaw puzzle, while singing some of our favourite old-time-sake songs. We played some arcade basketball and Spot It.

We also did some Hebrew reading, which is rare. Although it’s really important to maintain another language, the kids don’t open up for it easily (I guess they were that bored …)
We read a book that I had received from my late auntie. It’s called ‘The Soul Bird’. It’s a children’s book that explains what’s in our soul. Despite being a children’s boo,k I find it fascinating for adults as well. Especially these days when we are all at home, sometimes happy and sometimes sad, sometimes our soul bird opens up the impatience drawer without wanting and we get impatient … we can all relate to that… sometimes the bird opens up the talking drawer and you just can’t stop talking.

I’m very familiar with that.

Sometimes you are feeling loved, sometimes you are lonely.
Most important thing is to listen to our soul bird…

Another Thursday. Unbelievable.
Another cooking-cleaning day during school assignments day.
Nothing too exciting…

At Midday, I saw a bit of sun coming out so I took my lunch (spaghetti bolognese) with me to get some sun. It was nice and warm for maybe 10 minutes.

The day Stage 4 started, I decided to get a haircut.
Unfortunately, I was late for that.
It’s been a few days since then and every time I look at the mirror I’m horrified by my too-long hair.

Today, when school was over, I asked my daughter to cut my hair.
She was shocked I’m trusting her, but she liked the idea.
She started cutting and I was nervous at first, but I could see she can handle it. I gave her the feeling she can do this. Worst case scenario, it will grow by the time we’ll finish this lockdown.

It was her first time doing such a thing and she did very a good job.

Then, she wanted me to cut her hair. She had a long hair, but full of knots…
I cut 5 cm, then she wanted another 5cm, then another 5cm…
Then I decided to stop before it’s too late and it would end up with tears.

Well, she was so happy with her haircut. She just loved it!!!

I was very happy it worked out well.

Now she’s considering working as a hairdresser 🙂

We are very lucky that in these weird and dark times we can still celebrate together, online.

Don’t get me wrong, I hate Zoom. I preferred to celebrate together. But at the moment it’s impossible.
So Zoom is actually the best way nowadays to communicate with a lot of people. It helps us connect as a family, a little bit more…

Today’s highlight was my ‘little’ brother’s birthday. We scheduled to meet the whole family on Zoom in order to celebrate.

Everybody was there.

I made him a PowerPoint slide with photos I found on my computer, and with assistance from hubby, who’s our tech guy, I added music to it & screen-shared it on zoom.

Searching for photos of him on my computer was a time consuming task. There are thousands of photos if not more… and I found photos since he was born until recent years, throughout his visit to Australia.

The outcome was fantastic. He so was surprised!

Even my daughter made him a special cupcake.

My nana was very emotional to see all of that…

Then 2 hours later he received a bouquet of flowers made of balloons.
With some greetings from us.
He wasn’t expecting that.

Just a little ray of light to brighten his day…

It was very cold today. I didn’t miss the cold weather…

I helped to do some school assignments, a bit of cleaning, washing etc. It was just another day… one of those days that feel like groundhog day.  A repetition of the same day until you change something. I couldn’t think of something to change, besides the fact that I shouldn’t stand in the kitchen to cook again.

But I had to make chicken soup to get us warm, in addition to some homemade burgers with all the veggies included. It was delicious!

Then, it hit me… I know what we need to do for dinner.

Aligned with everyone’s request, we ordered takeaway, some yummy pasta!
Which means I made a change. I don’t think it means the nightmare we are living in (lockdown) will be over… but it means there’s always something to be grateful for, and there’s always something to look forward to…

We have nothing to complain about because we are living in a golden cage.

I woke up too early… I knew I needed more sleep but I wanted to sort a few things out before school drop off.

I was looking for a present to send my best friend, the one who just had her first baby.

Exciting!

I wanted it to be a surprise, so she’ll get it while she’s still in the hospital.
She knows I’m a bit crazy… But it’s not every day that your friend, one who you know from upper kinder, brings a baby to the world.
Started at upper kinder, then went together to primary school, then to secondary school… kept in touch all those years since.
We lived in a small town between Petah Tiqva and Ramat Gan, yes it is Bnei Braq, not the very frum side… the Mizrachi side.

We went to primary school, 2 streets away to the left of our homes. Went to secondary school 2 streets away to the right of our homes.

We went through a lot together, sneaking out from school, taking driving lessons, studying to bagrut (like VCE), going to Bnei Akiva, listening to music, walking around the hood.

We had good times.

Anyway, the present arrived and was appreciated like I wanted.

—

For dinner, my daughter kicked me out of the kitchen again!

I love when she’s doing that.

She’s so smart, she knows exactly what we like to eat and how to make it.

Today’s menu was fabulous.

Rice paper rolls with avocado, capsicum & cucumber, with sweet chili sauce.
Fried eggplant with mayo decorations.
Sourdough baguette with Schug (spicy) boiled egg and veggies.

For dessert, we had pancakes in the oven with berries & banana.
So yummmmm!

This was the highlight of the day!

What a day! I woke up very early after another great night sleep. Had to go shopping. The mask is really not comfortable for breathing but chatting turns to be nearly impossible… so I tried to do it as quick as possible.

Made some kalette chips… with salt, pepper & olive oil in the oven. I finished them almost by myself. It’s addictive like chips but it’s also healthy like kale or Brussels sprouts. Then I put some eggplant in the oven to be ready for “Sabich” at dinner.

Remember party season started today? this is what happened: in the afternoon we ‘met’ my whole family on Zoom to celebrate my mum’s birthday. We did a funny quiz about her, which was a brilliant surprise for her.

My daughter made a fantastic lemon cake with cream cheese and blueberries so we can celebrate with her for real. we sang Happy Birthday and served ourselves the cake. That was awesome! Then we read our written greetings to her. My mum was on Cloud Number 9. Well, she deserved it!

Can’t  wait for the next party…