Peaceful Shabbat

I'm more relaxed than I've been in a long time, and that tells me I've made the right decision: I'm dropping the Hebrew course. It remains to be seen whether that also means I'm dropping the whole Masters program. I have a call in to my advisor. Hopefully I'll be able to drop this, and next semester take a regular text study class (which is what my Masters is in), and later (in a year or so), take this 4th semester of Hebrew in person at the college rather than online.

But I am so much happier already, just making the decision!

We went to shul this morning, and I got the nicest compliment from a friend:

You look so happy when you are with your daughter!

It's true. I just adore Sofia. And even as she drives me insane with the intensity of her toddler-ness, I'm so proud of her and all she's been able to achieve so far, and I have so many dreams for her future. I am really having a great time with her!

After services and lunch, we cam ehome and relaxed. The kids and I watched "Angels with Dirty Faces", a great Cagney movie, while David of course slept. I also worked on the music players for the boys - for Micah's birthday, I bought them both little mp3 players, and I've been transferring music from my iTunes for them. (Yes, I bought for both even though it was Micah's birthday. I can justify it by cost and by the fact that Sam spazzes out when Micah gets something he wants and by the fact that Sam's the one who has been requesting one for a while [but he chose half as many songs as Micah!]).

Thursday for Micah's birthday, we went to dinner at Bugaboo Creek. They have a giant talking buffalo head on the wall, and Sofia was so funny, watching the buffalo. And Micah got to "kiss the moose", which is the big thing there. After dinner, David took the kids home, and I met some girlfriends for drinks (I also got to go to the bookstore by myself!).

Friday there was a funny bit with Sofia: on Fridays just before school ends, the kids celebrate Shabbat together in the cafetorium, and the parents are invited to attend. The students all sit on the floor in a big circle, for prayers, a story, and a presentation by one of the classes, and then they do Israeli dancing. Well, during the story, Sofia kept walking over many of the kids, patting them on the back and waving and smiling into their faces! She looked like she was running for office, greeting each one individually. Some of the kids, especially the older classes, were very cute with her, but some of the young kids were annoyed. It was interesting to watch. Eventually, she settled into the lap of one of Sam's classmates, and contentedly listened to the rest of the story.

Tomorrow morning is the last day of soccer - hooray - and the trophy ceremony.

Ok, another passing thought: I am reading yet another book about King David, and there is a mention about all the various infertile women in the Bible - Sarah, Rebekkah, Rachel, Hannah... And the other night over drinks, I was listening to all the other women talk about the problems they'd had with fertility. So I got to thinking: do women like the biblical Leah, or like me, "count" any less because we are fertile, because we have no trouble getting pregnant? Do I love my children any more or less fiercely because I could conceive on schedule? [note, I do not think so at all, but it did make me ponder a bit...]