A Sweet Shabbat

We had such a very nice shabbat, just the five of us. The only sad moment came when I was making kiddush on Friday night and I looked down at Amirah and her eyes were pink and full of tears. "I miss papa," she said. All through the kiddush she was quite teary-eyed. The whole rest of the time she was just fine. I had to suppress a smile; her tears were so completely sweet and her love for her papa so evident.

I got in 3–4 hours of reading today. The kids played games with each other (Funny Bunny, Carcassonne, Pictureka) and Amirah discovered the joys of Othello (the game, that is!). I even took a 90-minute nap on the couch while Avi was napping. I was downstairs in case any of them needed me. Towards the end of the nap, I heard Amirah walk up to me and say, "Mama? Oh, come on Eli and Raizel, she's still resting. We'll go play a little longer." How could I not get up after that and read all kinds of stories? We read torah stories, began to read the story of Gilgamesh (our next subject in history), read more Car Science (I still think that book is fascinating), a book on garden pests and diseases that Amirah had brought home from the library, and read a few chapters in The Golden Bull (the story of two children in the ancient city of Ur). They played outside together, and rode their bikes in the garage. It was truly lovely. They were all being very sweet and putting their best foot forward. We had almost no squabbles. I think Hashem is being very kind to me with DH away for a few days. It's all been very easy, B"H.

Tomorrow we'll have a learning day. Monday and Tuesday too, though Tuesday afternoon has doctor appointments for the kids. Wednesday we're doing a day trip with MB and family to mountains or beach or fruit picking or river or ? Thursday is another learning day and I teach. It should be a nice week and good to have everyone together after last week's separate activities.

Also... a few days ago we got an order of grass-fed beef – rib steaks, ground beef, and brisket. It is absolutely fantastic, with a very different flavor. I don't even know how to describe it. It's definitely not bland. In some ways it's kind of like the grape juice we make - it dances on your tongue. The flavor is much more complex and alive. Just delicious. I'm so excited, and so sad that we'll most likely leave behind access to meat like this when we move. Oh, well!