Last time we left off with post bar mitzvah stuff. You will be happy to know that all bedding has been washed and stored. And then taken out again as my kids had a few friends sleep over. And now washed and stored again.
We did a family photo redo with the photographer (ask me for her info if you want pics done in Israel). Apparently when we get all dressed up and try to wrangle 30 people, we end up looking kind of stressed in photos. So we did a redo. It was super fun and we love the pictures this time. Sorry folks, the dog did not join us this time. But not to worry because I definitely take more pics of her than I do of all of my children combined.
WORK
I did start my training in the new unit and yes, I was super worried. Thankfully it has been going well (no jinx please). I had asked for and have received patient nurses to train me (disclaimer, almost all on my unit are patient). I have, as usual, asked a ton of questions. I have, as usual, forgotten hilarious words and have had a good laugh with my coworkers. Did you know that the word for antidote in Hebrew is antidote? Said with the proper accent of course (of which I don't exactly excel at). So yeah, add that word to my list.
One day at work, we had a very low census and my boss told me that it did not make sense for me to go there, as there was nothing to learn that day. I thought to myself, cool, day off. But no. I was sent to pediatrics instead. Let me tell you - those nurses deserve a medal. Those nurses did not sit down or breathe once, yet they never lost their cool. Thankfully they were sweet as could be to me (which is not always the case as having a nurse sent to your unit that is clueless about pediatrics is often harder) and I scored by having 2/3 of the nurses there being native English speakers and the third whose English was amazing. I have no plans to return there any time soon, but my historical nurses cap off to them. They are awesome.
As a side note, the nurses on that unit wear cute scrubs with prints. We wear solid green, as do a few units and most doctors. So this led to every single patient and parent thinking I was the doctor, which was a super awkward situation for me. It was adorable when one little boy kept calling over to me in Arabic and addressing me as doctor. But look at how far we have come that everyone thinks a woman is the doctor. This is exact opposite of a good friend of mine who is actually a doctor and whenever a male nurse is around they call him doctor and her nurse.
WORK SWAG!
About two months ago, I received a message on my work group chat that we were all going to make sweatshirts together if there was enough interest. Apparently it has been many years since they have done group shirts, so the sunshine committee decided to do a new round. If you are wondering who was first to sign up, wonder no more. It was me! They came out super cute and it is definitely fun for team building. I do not understand the nurses that are always cold and wear them constantly on the unit, but hey, to each his own. Mine keeps a chair warm while indoors.
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| It translates to: Only champions are ahead of their time |
And then, I received an email from the hospital that all nurses are going to receive a gift for Tu B'Shvat (the birthday of the trees) and that our head nurse would have these gifts for us. Everyone was chatting about it, wondering what it was. Well, I walked into work on the day I got sent to pediatrics and my boss had me come in and take my gift. Because apparently the hospital had dropped off, into her small office, 50 gifts for our unit. That, plus the sweatshirts basically had taken over. It turns out that the gift was this huge, amazing box of dries fruits and nuts and halva. Basically a briefcase of said foods. My kids and hubby were pretty excited to see that on the table when they woke up the next day. Thanks Hadassah!
SCHOOL
In general in Israel, the school year is September 1-June 30. But this year, due to the Jewish Holidays beginning early in September my kids started at the very end of August. So apparently they were given a semester break. My girls were given two days off and my boys, 1.5 days. Which meant that my girls spent one day staring at their phones and watching TV and my boys only spent half of a day doing the same. Because on the second day, they all had a scouts trip. Bye kids, have fun! I mean, I did not actually say that because they left on said trip while I was working an overnight shift. Which meant that they had to get themselves up, ready, remember everything they had packed the night before, grab their food from the fridge and make the 15-20 minute walk, all without parental supervision. I mean, 15 minutes after their bus was supposed to leave I finally had a moment free to text - "are you guys alive and did you make the bus?" Apparently they all did. Yay for Israeli independence. And for us living in an area that is convenient to walk to a lot of key locations around town.
REPORT CARDS
So the semester break coincided with the handing out of report cards. My favorite thing to do is to read all of the teacher comments. Because I feel like the comments really show that the teachers know my kids and are looking out for them. They compliment when warranted and send suggestions when warranted. I also love that I can generally understand the comments without a minimal use of Google Translate.
COOKING
You might remember form a few blogs from last year (pre-employment) that I have rediscovered my love of baking and cooking, since moving to Israel. I mean, yes it is odd because I now have a tiny oven and a 1.5 burner electric stove-top. Yet, somehow I enjoy cooking more. This year I have not had as much time because of my shift work. (in Israel we do not work set shifts. In one week I can work a morning shift, an evening shift and an overnight shift) But last week I had three days off in a row and I almost did not know what to do with myself. So I cooked everything! And then I baked everything! And then I made hubby find a place for everything in my freezer.
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Back to blog writing again after about two weeks of zero time.
I continue with my work training. I continue learning new words. I continue stumbling over English words written in Hebrew letters.
An example: we feed the bigger babies in a way that is called paced feeding. One day, in our WhatsApp group, someone asked a question about this, but obviously in Hebrew. I stared and stared at the message and felt like such a dummy because I did not understand her question. Well, I only felt slightly less like a dummy when my boss answered but wrote paced feeding in English. Oops. This is seriously a huge Hebrew hurdle - understanding English written in Hebrew.
You are probably wondering what my dog has been up to lately. Well, she has been super busy barking at nothing, protecting us from a leaf blowing around, and saving us from random cars that come within a three block radius from the house. Then when she is outside, she has been busy licking and sniffing other dogs and rolling around in the park. She leads a busy and fulfilling life. And when she knows we are all safe, she spends most of her time sleeping.
Time to sign off, because I am doing some studying for work and apparently my kids like to eat dinner every single day. So since I am not working at this second I should probably cook them something.
Oh and my final sentiment. If you were worried that my kids do not have enough school trips - today 3/4 of them were on school trips and next week one of them has two different trips. One which is a two night overnight hiking and camping trip somewhere and one which is an overnight photography trip to somewhere else. These kids are living the life!
Okay, really the last thing. I have been gifted by the schedule fairies, three days off in a row. Prepare yourselves for fun pictures in the next blog.
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