Spring, sort of...

Well, apparently I began this blog a few weeks ago and then promptly got busy and forgot about it. Most is still relevant.

But first, Purim:

I present you, with my super original, amazing Purim costumes.  I worked both days of Purim (I work in Jerusalem where they celebrate a day after the rest of the country) so I could not do a full dress up.

In case my label is not clear - I am an Olah Chadasha, aka, New Immigrant.  Everyone got a laugh out of this at work.

Putting my unicorn cake decoration to good use

That unicorn horn was a perfect work costume.  Until I had to don sterile gear and I went to put on the sterile cap and hit the horn.  Oops.  So for the last hour of my shift, no unicorn.


Spring:

Spring is in the air here in Israel. (Okay, it is currently a huge rainstorm, but it has been in the air off and on).  While the winter here is nothing at all like the first 30++ winters of my life, it does get sort of cold here. Mostly it gets cold inside of the houses because they are not very well insulated. If it isn't raining then it is it usually warmer outside than it is inside.  I would say that I have worn my sandals for at least half of the winter, despite my coworkers constantly asking if I'm freezing. I mean, at work I wear sneakers so it's just to and from work. But like any group of Jewish mothers, we worry about everyone. I have occasionally even worn boots but I'm excited for sandal season to come back.  Also, my sandals fit more easily into my work locker than my boots.  Let us be realistic here.



One of the best parts about the winter here is the rain. Because rain means flowers. There are wild flowers growing everywhere and we finally even took a little hike through one of the local trails to see all of the flowers.  Obviously we took the dog because we need her to protect us from the local hyena that runs through town.  Or just because she likes little hikes.  You be the judge.

Kids and Trips:

I think I mentioned last time about my kids and their never ending school and scout trips. Last week (well, now, last month) child #4 had his overnight annual class trip. They went hiking and camping in some sort of giant communal tent. The boys organized a BBQ for themselves and delegated what each boy needed to bring.  Mine was in charge of the charcoal. So off he went to school with a hiking backpack, an overnight bag and a bag of charcoal. Obviously.  Apparently his sisters did assist him on the bus.

This trip was followed a few days later by a Yom Kef, AKA day of fun for this same child with his Beit Midrash class. Basically he has one class this year where the boys could choose which class to join. Hebrew literature, something I don't recall, or extra Torah study. Mine chose the latter. So his class went to the local pool and of course, then had another BBQ. And they went to a concert of some sort?  I really cannot keep up with these busy kids.

But wait, there's more. A few days later he went on a trip with his photography class.  They left our town at 10pm or so to drive way up North to go bird watching and take photos. He returned home the next day in the late afternoon.

What a life these kids have here!!

And just so the others don't feel left out, my girls had a sports competition and a trip to Old Yaffo and Tel Aviv during this time.  And my older son's class had a few trips to help them prepare for their upcoming trip to Poland.

And, as if all of these trips were not enough, I occasionally try and take the kids out for something fun.  It can be hard to coordinate between their school/activity schedule and my unusual work schedule but we try.

Which meant that last week I spent a day with one daughter, doing her favorite things. Going to aroma for hot chocolate and a cookies. Why do I say a cookies?? Because the sign next to the cookies in aroma says cookies in Hebrew letters. And that refers to one cookie. Because after ordering, they asked if she wanted her one cookies heated up.  Then we headed back home to watch Aquaman . And then topped off the day with her #1 favorite food, hamburgers from her favorite place, appropriately called, Beef.

In the same week I also managed a day with the other daughter.  This day consisted of shopping. She has been saving her money to buy herself the official shoes of Israel, Blundstones so off we went. Two stores later she had made her purchases.  Then off to the fancy baking shops to browse and get a few things for Purim, and the art shop to get glitter because how can a teenage girl survive without glitter? Then off to the mall to look at more shoes, which didn't work out. But we did manage pastries and coffee and only made one Hebrew blunder which is quite the success. And finally back home to snuggle with the dog and order a veggie burger also from Beef , because apparently they make the best one.

I have yet to manage a day for each boy but that is in the works. In the meantime, yesterday I picked them both up at school and took them out for ice cream.  So being a nurse and working odd hours does have it's perks.

Work:

As many of you saw on Facebook, I was asked to present something at the last staff meeting. Now, I may have taken a semester of public speaking in 1996 in high school and I think I even got an A. But that in no way means that I enjoy public speaking, or public speaking in front of work colleagues, or public speaking in Hebrew, on a small stage. I'd say the highlight was when I got through it and only one person argued about it. That might be a record at our staff meetings.  While it went better than I thought it would (I pictured myself getting up and forgetting all Hebrew) and I am proud that I did it,  I am hopeful that my boss won't ask me to speak again for a while.

Also at work, I have finished my training in the higher level NICU and I have been set free. It's great and it's terrifying. One thing I love about hospital nursing is that you're never alone and even the hardest day can be made better if you work with good people.  It also doesn't hurt that every time I work on shabbat, (big difference between the USA and Israel) I bring cake. You make more friends when you bring cake.

Dog:

So as you know, we have a tiny fluffball of a dog. She is under 10lbs and will attack you until you rub her belly. Basically her biggest skill is licking someone too much. Oh, but she also has a weird habit of eating bugs. Like she is part lizard. So imagine my surprise when I was working in the office and I hear a commotion in the living room which is attached. One daughter is screaming, "a bird flew in and Goldie is going to kill it."

Why yes, the only child home was the vegetarian child who was about to witness my dog kill and eat a pigeon. I have enough teenage drama (I have four teenagers) in this house without having to deal with my child witnessing what was about to go down .

What does one do in such a situation? Well, I grabbed the only thing around which was a magazine, and I opened the back sliding door wider. I used the magazine to smack the dog away while also using it to shove the bird outside. Success!!!! Which magazine saved us, you might ask? Why, it was Bloomberg Business Week.  I always say, my husband works for the best company. Who knew their magazine both contained good articles and can save you in an emergency.


Scouts/Tzofim:

And finally, the big tzofim event of the year  -PESTI.  Why do they call it that?  No clue.  I thought it was FESTI our first year here, like festival, but no, it's pesti.  They spend a month or more preparing songs and cheers and videos, etc... and then on a Saturday night we all go and watch the competition.  This year our eldest is a counselor for the youngest age group.  He is like a tall tree among the tiny kids.

Our girls are training to be counselors, so they run the pesti with the help of their counselors.

And our youngest is in a regular group, competing for the win.  I shall save you the anticipation.  His group won.  No doubt due to his mad dance skills.

Final Note:

While most if my posts are mostly about the fun stuff we do here, I cannot end the blog (because of course it got delayed another week or so while I was busy with life) without mentioning what has been happening here.  In the past week or two, not only has there still been the perpetual violence around Gaza but now several rockets have been launched into Tel Aviv and into a town north of Tel Aviv.  Hamas claims these went off by accident because of rain storms.  But they were obviously pointed and ready to go.  We all hope that the situation does not escalate and actual peace can reign.


As usual, Israelis seem to take everything in stride and immediately start coming out with memes to lighten the situation.

Dear Hamas. Please share with us how you found an open field in Tel Aviv.  We cannot even find a parking spot there.

Where does the time go...

Ah yes, back again. Making a little time in my schedule for some blogging. I mean, I did organize my spice cabinet today, and now that that urgent task is completed, I can blog.

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.

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.

Back to Life....

Phew.  It has been two  three+ weeks since the last guest has gone home.  I think I washed about 40 towels, 12 sets of sheets (okay I don't own that many but I did have to wash the same stuff over and over) and I have finally had the kids put away all of the folding chairs.  The dog has somewhat recovered from being spoiled by guests.  Life is back to normal crazy instead of crazy crazy.

I think everyone had a great time, everyone had their fill of the many kosher restaurants, everyone enjoyed the sunshine, and everyone got to do a bit of touring.  Here are some highlights:

But first, here we are embarrassing our children at a netball game

I somehow agreed to be the driver to take family up north to see Caesaria.  I am not the biggest fan of driving, especially if I have never been there.  But in the end, we found it (I mean, it hasn't moved in a long time) and had a nice little time touring around.  Then I took everyone (well they took me technically) to the only restaurant in the area that I know, which happens to be a great winery.

I will not rehash the trip here because if you know me in real life then you have probably seen the slew of pictures all of my family members have posted.  And I have to get organized and post them as well.  I will post a few highlight photos here for you.

Suffice it to say, my little guy did a great job.  We had Bar Mitzvah #1 at the Kotel (Western Wall) and he did an amazing job.  Plus, he is so adorable.  Then we all walked from there to a restaurant in Mamilla for brunch.  I had told everyone that it was an easy walk because I had planned to walk us through the Arab Shuk.  But then I asked my friend/tour guide to lead us and he said he always goes through the Jewish Quarter.  So I said sure, why not.  Cue a few people being bitter at me because it is physically a harder walk.  But no worries, everyone made it and was rewarded with a delicious brunch.  Thanks to those who came and of course for my friends (these are the ones who live down the street and are the reason we chose this awesome neighborhood) who went to the Kotel early to make sure we got a table and a Torah.  As it turns out, if you come before 9am in a random month, it is no issue to secure a table.  There were tons.

Then we moved on to Bar Mitzvah #2, on Shabbat.  While I love discussing the amazing weather in Israel, it also does rain thankfully.  And this is the rainy season.  And well, it decided to mostly rain the day of his Bar Mitzvah.  So we spent the week prior back and forth with the caterer about renting a tent, speaking to the president or whatnot of our shul, etc....   I guess I should mention that this is Israel.  Our shul (synagogue) has a sanctuary and that is it.  If you want to host a kiddush or as party it is outside on their big patio.  If it rains, well you are sort of out of luck.

In the end, the cost of renting a tent was going to be more than the food, so we decided to hope for the best.  Thankfully it worked out.  It rained early in the morning, while everyone was walking to the shul, but by the time kiddush rolled around we had some sun and zero rain.  Our son's vision of a full meat kiddush at 10:30am worked out.  Why yes, it obviously makes sense to have meatballs, cholent, wraps and such at 10:30am, especially if you are a 13 year old boy.  My neighbors made the tables fancy with candy and decorations and it was just really nice.

So you get the idea.  The Bar Mitzvah was a success.  He did a great job, lots of people braved walking in the rain and there was plenty of food!

I could give a whole summary of what everyone did for the time they were here but by now most have posted it on Facebook so you can read about it there.  To sum up: everyone ate lots of delicious kosher food, explored some sights for the first time or the tenth time, enjoyed the good weather we had here for most of the time, and spent a lot of time discovering the joys of parking your car in Israel.

Oh wait, one more highlight.  When my sister and I did a gap year in Israel (Go NATIV!) we spent half of the year on a kibbutz called Kibbutz Sa'ad.  My parents had never visited the kibbutz, so I arranged for us to go down there on one fo the days.  It was my parents, my brother and sister, and the six of us.  I guess it is a good thing that the internet did not really exist back then because apparently my parents were quite unaware of how close kibbutz Sa'ad is to Gaza.  Now they know.  We had a nice tour of the kibbutz, visited the cows, visited the new carrot sorting factory (biggest in the Middle East!) and had a nice time visiting with my kibbutz mom at her house (with teas and cakes of course).  I think everyone enjoyed the visit.

Kibbutz Grandparents in the top picture

Kibbutz Parents in the bottom picture

Now onto other new tidbits about our life.

WORK
I was booked to attend a course at work for one day.  It was a neonatal resuscitation class and I stressed about it for the two weeks leading up to it.  I was handed a big Hebrew book and told to read it and then take the online test, before the course.  Luckily, I also own the English version of this book so I studied them together.  I managed to pass the online exam (On the 2nd try, after they told me that I can pause the clock to give me more time to read the questions, phew!) and even the class was much less stressful than I had imagined.  I understood what they were saying, my group was friendly and in the end I stressed over nothing.  And the best part - someone in my group also lives in Modi'in and I got a ride home, instead of waiting for the work van.  So that was great and we got to chat which was nice, since people are fairly silent on the work van, unless they have been working together for ten years.  I am the newbie.  Winning!!

DOG
My dog got some new clothing because apparently I am that person.  She enjoyed a nice vacation at the dog sitter AKA  she was totally spoiled with long walks, too much playtime and affection.  She was happy to see us but I wonder if she misses them and the fact that she gets to sleep in their beds.  Sorry dog, you get the dog bed and kennel.

MORE WORK
More English/Hebrew work confusion.  Because apparently the Hebrew word for staples (like surgical staples, but maybe for all staples) is clipsim  קליפסים.  Yes, it is clips, which is already plural, and then made into the Hebrew plural.  That was interesting and confusing for me to figure out at work.  Don't even get me started on the word for brownie.


ARMY STUFF
We attended a meeting for olim parents about the army/pre-army programs.  Because we are absolutely clueless about how the army works, what the jobs are (when they tell you think about what you want) what we need, etc...  So this was really helpful, especially since our eldest will have his first call up in the spring.  Eek!  But at least now we have some good information and we can start to think about the future.  There are all of these pre-army programs, year of study, year of volunteering, etc... I definitely need to ask all of my neighbors the details so we can figure out where to focus.  I mean, if I ever see my neighbors because I keep working on Shabbat or it keeps raining.  How can we hold the street meeting in the rain?


IN CONCLUSION
Okay, to sum up (because I already have spent way too long staring at the computer and not writing much).

#1-Bar Mitzvah - succcess

#2-Parent teacher conferences -  let us say that one teacher was (only?) running one hour behind schedule (I won't even write about that, let's just say that I came, I waited, I showed my pretty face, I tried not to be annoyed at the mother before me who took 30+ minutes even though the slots are 10 minutes long)  I mean, it's not like I am going to yell at someone, whether it be Hebrew or English.

#3-Hebrew confusion at work - always

#4-Hebrew course at work - success

#5-Army lecture for Olim - attended, good info, need to figure stuff out


What do we have ahead of us?

As of Sunday, I begin my training for the higher acuity NICU at the hospital.  We have two floors of the NICU and I currently work on the step-down unit (that is where everyone starts) and then we eventually train for the higher level and then rotate through both.  I told my boss about a month or so ago that I was not ready because I was worried about the language and it is a more intense environment, etc...  She said, don't worry, you have some time.  So I was like, phew. Until a week ago when she approached me and said that I was ready and what did I think?  Well,  it is hard to disagree with the boss.  I did request a reminder to those training me that they need to be a bit more patient because of the language.  Thankfully my boss has so far placed me with patient nurses.  I mean, I can see them on the schedule for week one.  I am hoping they will be patient with me.

So, to sum up my summary.  I am excited to start the training, but very nervous.  It is six weeks where I am working with other nurses and then I am on my own (I mean, it's not like they disappear but you know what I mean).  I am hoping that my fears are unfounded.  I love learning so I am excited for that aspect.  I also agreed to take on one extra shift per week during training so that I can learn more, so I guess my next blog is in 7 weeks or so?

For now, Shabbat Shalom, enjoy the food pics!