Sometimes I will catch you in a reflection.
The shape of our jaw or the curve of our smile.
And yet, when I turn to face you, its just myself I see.
So I look. I look into my own eyes and I see your soul.
I see the future you should have had and the past we shared.
I see our very last conversation and I see the conversation we would have today.
I look into my eyes and I know you are looking back at me.
And I wait for the next time I catch a glimpse of you out of the corner of my eye.
…the wife will have to clean out the veggie draw.
The veggie draw that had a bag of manky, rotten cucumbers in it. A bag of manky, rotten cucumbers that had been reduced to disgusting, scummy, smelly liquid. Disgusting, scummy, smelly liquid that had leaked into the veggie draw.
Oh, and don’t let me forget to tell you that the veggie draw has holes in the sides at the bottom, so when I pulled out the draw to dump the mess into the sink, it all drained out onto the floor.
So yeah. Today, more so than usual, I truly do appreciate my husband. He who cleans rotten veggies out the fridge and takes out the trash and cleans the toilets and cleans up after the dog because he loves me and knows I hate doing that stuff.
I love you husband. Three more sleeps!
Tuesday was election day here in Israel. That means we got the day off. No school, no work, so once Paul and I had voted, we gathered the kids, hopped on a train and went into Tel Aviv to visit the Eretz Israel Museum.
We wandered around looking at the various exhibits and then we came across the David Rubinger, I Captured the Truth, 1947-1997 exhibit. Being a photography nerd, Paul was fascinated and spent a bit more time in the exhibit than the kids or I. So we headed outside and sat on a bench outside.
Once Paul was done, he headed out of the exhibit and stopped to take a photo of us sitting together.
As he took the photo, the usher for the exhibit came rushing out, ‘No no no, you cannot take a picture there!’ She exclaimed (in Hebrew). Paul started looking for a no picture sign. ‘No’, she said again. ‘You cannot take a picture here, that wall, that wall is old and ugly!’
She then pointed across the courtyard, ‘That is where you must take a picture!’ She was pointing at a shady spot with a colourful flower bed.
‘Here. Here is a pretty wall covered in Jerusalem stone, and look at these beautiful flowers. This is where you must take a photo!’
And then she proceeded to direct us to sit in front of the pretty wall and pretty flowers.
‘No!’ She cried again. ‘Abba (dad), must be in the photo too!’ While taking Paul’s camera out his hands and directing him to sit with us.
She even laid her uniform jacket on the bricks for the children to sit on while shuffling us around to best show off the pretty blooms.
After a few misfires with the camera, and Aaron popping up to show her what to press, she snapped a beautiful family photo of us, and the pretty Jerusalem stone wall and the pretty flowers.
We thanked her and she told us that she had planted those flowers and was very proud of them. We also had a conversation about where we came from, ‘Oh, you are not tourists, why did you make aliyah?’ She told us that she is also an immigrant, from Uzbekistan, and that she came to Israel many years ago. She then took our map and showed us the best exhibits for the children to enjoy and wished us well before going back to the exhibit.
We had a wonderful day, voting, exploring the history of our country and generally relaxing, but the best part of the day for me, was a photo in front of some gorgeous flowers!
My grandfather is not well and it was time for a short trip back to SA to see him and help my mom.
So I’ve left my husband and kids to fend for themselves until Sunday.
As we were planning the trip, Paul suddenly turned around and asked where I get the recipes I use to make dinners etc. I looked at him and pointed at my head.
So, in the interest of keeping them fed and to stop them from eating sausages and corn schnitzel for a week, I thought I would write down some of the daily recipes I use.
Heat oven to 180C
In a small bowl, mix mustard, honey, salt, pepper and oil
Place breasts in a dish or foil roaster and cover with the honey mustard mix
Cover dish with foil and place in oven to bake for 30 minutes
At 30 minutes, uncover the chicken and continue to bake for a further 10 minutes or more until done.
Serve with rice or couscous.
Take out two plates and a large flat bowl
On the first plate, our out some flour, on the second plate pour out some breadcrumbs, mix the spices into the breadcrumbs
In the bowl, crack both eggs, add some water and mix well
In a pan, heat some olive oil
Take a piece of chicken and dip it in the flour so that both sides are covered
Dip the floured chicken in the egg mixture so both sides are coated
Now dip the egged chicken in the breadcrumbs so both sides are coated
Place the chicken in the hot oil and coat the next piece of chicken
After about 5 minutes turn the first pieces of chicken in the oil and fry for a further 5 minutes, you should fit 2 or 3 pieces in each pan depending on the size of the pieces
Remove chicken from oil and place in the oven (on 100C) to keep warm
Add a bit more oil to the pan and carry on frying until no chicken is left
Mix any leftover breadcrumbs, flour and egg into a paste and make small patties that you can fry for a few minutes at a time (the kids love these)
You can also bake the schnitzel in the oven if you dont want to fry it.
Heat the oven to 180C.
Place each piece of breaded chicken onto a baking tray (covered with a baking sheet), 1kg of chicken will take up both baking trays.
Spray the chicken with olive oil spray.
Place the chicken in the oven for 20-30 minutes.
Place onion, garlic, soy sauce, ketchup, vinegar, salt and pepper in the slow cooker and mix well
Place chicken breasts in the slow cooker and toss to coat with the sauce
Place the lid on the slow cooker and set on low
After about 3 hours, turn the chicken pieces over and continue cooking for another 3 hours
After about 6 hours (total), turn off the slow cooker and with 2 forks, shred the chicken and mix with the sauce
Serve on rolls or over rice
Place yeast, water and sugar in the bowl of the mixer
Once the yeast has started to foam (about 5 minutes), add all the other ingredients and mix on high until the dough forms a ball
The dough should be firm and not sticky, if its too sticky, add some flour, if its too dry, add a bit of water
Once the dough is ready, cover the bowl with plastic and a cloth and let sit for an hour
Roll out balls of dough, cover in tomato sauce, cheese and toppings and bake for 20 minutes at 180C
Hopefully they don’t starve or turn into sausages. And I will be back before they k ow it.
Another year has flown by. We’ve had our ups and downs. Mostly ups though.
Paul started a new job, we adopted a rescue dog, the kids are thriving.
My Hebrew still sucks and we still don’t have a drivers license between us, but my resolutions for the new year are to sort those two things out.
Every year here seems to be better than the last, so here is to a fantastic upcoming year!
Seriously, the summer vacation just flew by and I have a blog post brewing about all the fun things we did.
But in the meantime, Faith and Aaron have gone back to school.
Faith is now in Kita Gimmel (3rd grade) and Aaron is now in Kita Hay (5th grade).
Can they slow down just a bit please?
When we made aliyah, we made the heartbreaking and very emotional decision, not to bring our dashies with us.
You can read about it here. Suffice to say it was the best thing for them. And they landed up going to an amazing family, they are spoiled rotten, go for car rides and vacations to the beach and sleep on the bed. We get regular updates on how they are doing and pics of them all the time.
When Paul started his new job, which is a work from home/remote office job, we decided that we would look into getting a dog.
One of my stipulations was that we would take in a rescue dog, a doggo that needed a new home. Whether because they had been abandoned, or were too old to be adopted or had health issues. After having to give up our babies and seeing the love and care they were given in their new home, we wanted to pay it forward.
So one day a few months ago, I got a call from Vanessa, her pupper’s sister needed a new home, would we be interested?
Well, maybe.
I called the vet who was in charge of looking for a new home for Nessi and got the details of her current human. Within a week we made a plan to go see her and within a week from then we brought her home.
Here is her story.
When Nessi* (and her sister Sox and the rest of their litter) were about 2 weeks old, they were found on the side of a main road, their mum had been hit by a car . The pups were split up and went to a variety of people to hand rear them.
When they were about 5 weeks old, one of the foster moms older dogs attacked Nessi and cracked her skull/jaw. She was not allowed to be adopted out until she was fully healed.
She was then adopted out to a wonderful guy in Tel Aviv. Because of the pups losing their mum so early, they all have varying degrees of anxiety and other issues from not having that maternal protection. Nessi also has a few extra issues from her attack at 5 weeks. Her human spent hours and hours with her and a trainer working through her anxiety and issues and helping her overcome them.
And then her human got sick. Unfortunately his illness meant he was unable to look after a rambunctious, energy full, crazy puppy and he had to make the very hard and heart breaking decision to re home her.
Which is where we came in.
On 4th April, Nessi came to live us.
For the first day, she lay in one spot, refusing to move or interact with us at all. We left her alone, put out food and water for her and basically ignored her even though we just wanted to shower her with love.
When it came time to take her outside before going to bed she wouldn’t let us come near her to put her leash on and Paul spent ages sitting on the floor with treats, tempting her to come close enough to him to get it on.
That night she slept on the couch in the lounge and would not come sleep in her basket in our room.
To cut a long story short, she warmed up to us within a day or two. She has now taken over the entire house. She sleeps on the couch with us when we watch TV. She sheds everywhere. She sleeps in her basket in our room at night or on the mat next to Paul’s side of the bed.
She loves playing tug with her rope or her rubber bone and get super excited when the kids come home from school.
She loves the children and lets them lie all over her and kiss and hugs her. She is very much a puppy and loves to bite and chew everything, especially people!
She still has very bad anxiety and we give her homeopathic doggy anti-anxiety pills twice a day which definitely helps but we need to take her to training. She really doesn’t like strangers, especially when they come to our house, so we need to help her deal with that or we will never be able to have visitors again.
All in all, adding Nessi to our home has been the best decision. We love her and she brings joy into our home.
*Nessi in Hebrew means miraculous.
No I’m not pregnant. Just been absent. For 6 months.
For some reason I just stopped blogging. No great secret, no shocking reason. I just stopped. I also seem to have stopped using Twitter. Again, no idea why, no real reason. I just stopped.
So, whats happened over the last 6 months?
Paul has a new job. Its a pretty cool position in an awesome company that he gets to do from home.
We got a dog! Her name is Nessi which means miracle in Hebrew. She is the cutest floof ever, even when she bites and nibbles to get your attention. I will write another post all about her soon.
The kids have finished school and are well into summer vacation. In September, Aaron will be in 5th Grade and Faith will be in 3rd Grade. Where has the time gone?
We all finally got our Israeli passports. This means we can travel easily throughout Europe. So give me your suggestions. Where should we visit?
I dyed my hair. Purple and blue! I love it.
Other than that, the last 6 months have been pretty quiet. Just the way I like it.
Hopefully I will be back in the writing mood now and will post more often. Or not. No promises.
We have been living in Israel for just over three years now.
Some days it feels like yesterday and some days it feels like forever.
My Hebrew still sucks but my kids are fluent.
They are both doing well in school (with some serious encouragement) and have so many friends.
Im still at my awesome job and Paul is freelancing and being an amazing house husband (I hardly ever have to do a load of laundry myself).
We have amazing friends, Israelis and Expats.
You cant ask for anything more.
Life is good.
That’s the sound of another year flying past us.
On 1st September Aaron and Faith started their new school year.
Aaron is now in Grade 4 and Faith is in Grade 2.
For Faith this means she is now part of the main school, she gets to play where ever the rest of the school plays. The Grade 1’s were restricted to their own playground that they shared with the Grade 0’s, so this is a big step for her.
It also means there is no more sandpit for her to play in which means no more sandpit coming home in her shoes and pockets. Yay for me!
She is also going to aftercare every day, where they will hopefully help her with homework since I am useless with most of it.
So far she is loving being in ‘big’ school.
Aaron, on the other hand, no longer has aftercare. He is now in Grade 4 so both the school aftercare and the private aftercare say he is big enough to look after himself in the afternoons.
::puts head between knees, takes deep breaths::
My baby is almost 10 and is now coming home from school all on his own. Making himself something to eat. All on his own. Doing his homework. All on his own. Looking after himself until one of us gets home. All. On. His. OWN!
But I think this child will be just fine. No, I know he will. He is a smart, independent, compassionate boy.
Here’s just one of the reasons I think this child is awesome!
Yesterday when he went home, the downstairs neighbours dog was outside. He called me to ask what he should do. I told him to knock on the door and if no one answered to try open their garden gate or try pick her up and put her over the fence.
They were not home, he couldn’t open the gate and she was too heavy (and growly) for him to lift, so I told him to leave her, I was sure her humans would be home soon and its not the first time she has been out, she never strays far and waits near the door for them anyway.
He wouldn’t hear of it. Told me it was too hot and she couldn’t stay by herself. So he coaxed her into our place, gave her a bowl of water and she then proceeded to climb on my couch and lick and bite herself for an hour, leaving a big wet slobber patch and half her hair all over my couch.
But my sweet, kind hearted boy refused to leave her vulnerable. He makes my mama heart so proud.
Here’s to a new school year. May it be as awesome as my children are!
