Finishing up the summer

Whew, I finally posted a job listing at the local college for a new mother's helper/babysitter. E and A had the nerve to graduate! E is off to Spain for a year to teach English, and A will be teaching at an after-school program (she'll still be around to help me in mornings). So I need need need someone to help in the afternoons. Sofia will be getting out of school at 3:30. The boys get out at 3:15. The schools are at least 20 minutes apart. Not gonna work.

Ok, last week was a speed train. After the Dryer Fire and pool party, things were a little calmer, but not really. Wednesday evening we all went to Sears to see what we might buy, and decided we should probably research on line first. But Sofia and I had a nice Indian meal in the food court at the mall - one of the best Indian restaurants in this area is in the food court. YUM.

Thursday, I had to drive out to Sturbridge to meet my parents and give them Sam, who is now in CT until this Friday. Had lunch, and then raced back. Had about an hour to work, then David and I went in to Boston for a Harbor Cruise. Had a really nice time. We were with a party sponsored by our Financial guy, and we probably brought the average age in the room down about 20 years, but we met very nice people and heard wonderful stories.

Got home at 11, and I stayed awake until 2:30 working on the Baby Naming service. Friday afternoon, I officiated at the naming ceremony for my friend's niece. I love working with unaffiliated families, helping them celebrate Jewish milestone events in a meaningful way. I'm proud of my work - the service was short but lovely.

Friday morning my friend R came over and we all went to the pool for a while, then she watched Micah and Sofia at a playground while I was doing the baby naming. Then she joined us for Shabbat dinner.

And Friday morning, I also finally got all the tomatoes froze, and made fried peppers. Yum.

And eventually I mostly learned my Torah readings for Shabbat. I was originally supposed to do one reading of about 18 lines. Ok. Had it going fine. Then we realized that Sam would not be around to do his 7 lines. Which meant I had to pick that up, too. Ugh. My brain is just not up to that many lines of Torah - every word has to be pronounced correctly and hopefully sung correctly, yet in the Torah itself there are no vowels and no music marks, so it all has to be basically memorized (except that you MUST read it, you cannot do it totally from memory). It's hard. And I think I would have been ok with just one reading, but two was really hard. I'm glad it's done.

Saturday afternoon, we wanted to go see my in-laws. Kind of a mess, and David has been in a majorly bad mood for a week already. We ended up in massive traffic on the pike, and got out to the Berkshires much much later than we'd planned. But it turned out ok. My MIL bought food, and I cooked us a nice dinner. David and his dad both talked a lot, and his mom and I had a nice visit. Today is her birthday, but yesterday was also the anniversary of the day David's brother died. So it's a tough time, and I wanted to be there.

I'm glad we went. We did not stay over - I had been getting us prepped to sleep over, but then David said he wanted to come home late at night, so I didn't pack. And then he wanted to stay over, but we didn't have our stuff. But Micah was stressed - my in-laws have dogs, and even though the dogs stay in the basement, the house is in the woods and Micah is terribly afraid of having a bad allergy attack. Poor neurotic kid.

Today we slept late, and eventually went looking at dryers again. I think I've picked out the one I want, a GE, now we just have to order it. Later, we attempted to go bowling, per Micah's request (at first, he and David were going to go slot-car racing but the place was closed). Bowling was a nightmare. Sofia got VERY excited and just wanted to roll balls down the lane (candlepin). Micah was excited and going faster and faster. And David got completely frustrated and angry because we weren't "playing" a real game. So that put Micah in a terrible mood, which made David even angrier. But he calmed down when we got home. Eventually we got some sushi, and had a nice dinner together. He's flying again tomorrow, so I'm glad he calmed down before he left.

Gotta arrange some play dates for Micah this week. And maybe Sofia, too.