R2BC - So Long Wet Winter

Ready for Spring (photo by Sarit)

I really wanted to write this Reasons 2B Cheerful post tonight so that it gets in under February's posts, so that's why I'm on time this week. The Linky is at Mich's Mummy from the Heart for the last time before moving for March.

1
The Power of Whatsapp
Yesterday I was walkng to the bus stop when I met my downstairs neighbour on the corner waiting for her ride to work. We were chatting when we saw a car try to turn the corner on the wrong side of the road and hit another car. No one was hurt and both drivers got out and started taking pictures. My neighbour's ride came and I went on to catch my bus.

Later I got this Whatsapp message: "This morning I was involved in an accident on the corner of x and y streets. Two mothers from the school (actually my neighbour isn't but I am) saw it. Please pass this message on if you have kids in other classes so that I can find and talk to them." And there was a phone number.

I called. She is a First Grade mother but the power of Whatsapp sent the message to almost every class in the school. She told me that the guy in the other car is saying that it was her fault. I wrote down what I saw and whatsapped it to her. She was very grateful and said that they probably won't need a witness but the insurance company might call me to verify.

2
Away Away
In the famous words of Meryl Streep in Mama Mia, it's not just away, it's away away. Yedidya Bazaar was earlier this week. I took along five shopping trolleys worth of stuff that I'd decluttered last summer but not yet moved out of the apartment. I'm still trying to decide how to best use the freed up space in the spudy wardrobe.

3
Stormy Weather
We just had the most almighty storm in Israel. The streets turned to rivers, the lights went out at school (although strangely all other electricity was fine), it hailed tennis balls of ice, the ground is saturated. It was amazing! Obviously it was amazing because it only lasted two days. I get it that this sort of weather that can go on for weeks in the UK and other northern climes, is not amazing, just depressing. But for us, it was amazing. Now it has almost passed. Almost but not quite.

This winter has marked the end of a five year drought. That doesn't mean no rain for five years but very little, and not enough. And more rain expected next week, although not as big a storm as we just had.

4
Marching On
Tomorrow is March. So long winter. You were a wet one this year and we're ready to say thank you and good bye.

R2BC for February

Reasons 2B Cheerful from a sunny Jerusalem in February. I'm joining the cheerful linky on Becky's Lakes Single Mum.

1 
Lark - Trial Run
I wrote that I'd be starting the early mornings on Sunday (tomorrow) - the first working day of February. But on Wednesday I had a trial run. I got up at 5.30. I didn't do any work work as I'd planned, but rather I spent 1.5 hours pottering. The other half hour was getting dressed.

I cannot tell you how much that pottering affected my whole day. I did the dishes in the sink and folded the clean laundry whilst also doing two more loads of laundry and then hanging it out. I tidied, I paid all the outstanding bills that were due, I filed papers, and I found the documents I needed to take to the tax office - a job that has to be done in January and that I've been putting off.

I gave DD a pile of clothes to wear instead of shouting out to her to find something in her cupboard. I made her lunch. We were both much calmer than usual without any of the usual pressure and stress to get out on time. I caught the earlier bus and, helped by the fact that the sun was shining and the sky was a clear blue, I sat on the bus thinking how happy I was (pht pht pht).

And the effect rolled over to Thursday when I got up at 6 but still felt empowered by Wednesday's early start. I didn't achieve much on Wednesday morning but just being up early gave me such a feeling of control that I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow morning. (And I intend to do things like dishes, folding laundry and tidying up before I go to bed tonight.) This is unheard of, no one looks forward to Sunday mornings in February. (Remember we start the working week on Sunday.)

2
Tax Office
I did my homework and went on a day that they are actually open. There are two visits one has to make at the beginning of the year if you work in more than one place. The first, in January, to get your tax positions for the coming year, i.e. how much tax each employer has to deduct. The second is in March when you apply for any tax returns from the year before. You can, of course, do all this online, but I like to go and get the papers in my hand immediately. And the tax office is only one bus ride from my house. I was in and out in 20 minutes. Wednesday was a very good day.

3
February
In more northern climes, February is usually miserable. You've had enough of the cold, gray winter, Christmas is long passed and snow has well and truly lost its magic. But it lingers for up to another month. February in England used to be the Monday morning of the year.

Here February is a weird time. It could be the beginning of spring. We're having plenty of warm days atm, with blue skies. The almond blossom is out. It feels all hopeful and light. Otoh, February could surprise us with another bout of winter, and even snow in Jerusalem. We didn't get any snow that stuck this year and a snow day would be most welcome, seeing as we get no half-term or spring break holiday from school. So either way it'll be good.

4
Strawberries
We bought strawberries for the first time this season. They've been out for a while but you have to wait until the price comes down to something reasonable. Delicious.

5
Report Card
DD got her report card for the end of the first semester and it's fine. I have to sign it and send it back but before it goes back, there's a section that DD has to fill in about what she's proud of and what she wants to work harder at next semester. She's proud of her progress in Hebrew, that she got top marks for Bible Studies and Computer Studies, and that the sports teacher noticed how much fitter she is this year (thanks to gymnastics twice a week).

She wants to work harder in Maths because although she progressed, she feels the teacher underestimates her and she should have got the top grade. And she'll put that she wants to work harder in Geography because I want her to. Especially as she lost ground because I didn't realize the urgency of buying her an atlas. We scraped through science but we're not that bothered. I'm not scientific so it'll be up to some future science teacher to inspire her in that subject if it's going to happen. And finally, English and Art - top grades. All in all, just fine.

6
Yedidya Bazaar
We have the dates for this Year's Yedidya Bazaar. 24th and 25th of February. And we can start dropping things off a week before on the 17th Feb. That's really near. I'm so excited to clear almost a whole cupboard of things I decluttered last summer (as part of the 1000 Clutters Challenge) - but only as far as the spare room wardrobe.

  

Happy New Year Trees! - R2BC

I think they should have closed the schools!

Remember this?

Whether the weather be hot, 
Or whether the weather be not,
We'll weather the weather, 
Whatever the weather.
Whether we like it or not.

Reasons 2B Cheerful for this week are almost all weather related. I'm joining the R2BC linky over at Becky's Lakes Single Mum.

1. It's my Eight Year Blogiversary. 19/1/2011 was the first the blog post. That's it really, who knew that eight years later I'd still be at it.

2. On Wednesday night we had snow. If the snow sticks and is still visible at 7 am, even the tiniest bit which we all know will be gone by 08.30, school is cancelled. They were expecting it and all schools closed at 3 pm on Wednesday afternoon. (Thanks for nothing - most Primary schools finish at 3 or even 2.30. Remember that we start at 8 am.) DD's class were in a frenzy of whatsapping on Wednesday evening. Reports coming in from all the surrounding areas about whether it was real snow or just hail. We live half way up the valley so we didn't quite believe that there was actually snow. By Thursday morning the storm had passed and the the ground was wet but clear. All over Jerusalem pupils and teachers dragged themselves out into the cold, wet, grey morning. Their hopes of a snow day at home dashed. Apparently there was snow on the higher grounds and I saw some of it malingering on my way to my school. Seriously, I think that patch warranted a day at home but no one asked me.

3. So on Wednesday evening, DD and I settled down on the sofa, under blankets, and binge watched Heartland on Netflix. We saw about five episodes. Yes that's five hours of TV but it was punctuated by rushing to the window every few minutes to see the lightning and count until the thunder to find out how near the storm was. And we had to assess the snow/hail/sleet/graupel situation in order to contribute to the whatsapping. It's very sweet that this group has rules that the kids are very strict about. A previous class group got silly and sometimes nasty so they set up this new official group. One of the rules is no messaging after 8 pm. So at the height of excitement about the weather, at 8 pm it suddenly went quiet. I was very proud of them.

4. On Monday is Tu B'Shvat (the 15th of the Jewish month of Shvat) which is the New Year for Trees. I think it's supposed to be the official start of spring. The traditional song is all about the sun shining, almond blossom appearing and the birds singing from the rooftops. Seems a bit ridiculous  for the middle of January but every festival has been early this year. (It's a leap year in the Jewish calendar which means we have an extra month next month so while Tu B'Shvat was early, Purim and Passover will be late.) Still, the sun is shining, we are forecast temperatures in the teens all next week, and it feels like the end of the winter might possibly be nigh.

Happy New Year dear trees! I'm not planning to go out and plant a tree, which is one of the Tu B'Shvat customs, but I'll definitely give one or two of them a hug.

March Project and Celebration - R2BC

Almond blossom in Jerusalem. One of the signs of spring.
We even have a song about it. 

In case you  missed it. I'm making a celebration and doing a project for each month of 2018. So far January celebrated 'Turning Over a New Leaf' and the project was to get all my paper work in order. It's almost done. 😜

February celebrated the end of the winter and the first signs of spring. The project was major decluttering and spring cleaning. It's almost done. 😜

March is really the start of spring here. I put the radiators away today. (We have socks and fleeces if it gets a bit chilly in the evening.) That's a reason 2B cheerful in itself. Here are my other Reasons 2B Cheerful for this week.

This year the festivals of Purim (which is our equivalent to Mardi Gras and Carnivale) and Pesach (Passover) both fall in March (the 1st for Purim and the 30th for Pesach). So the Celebration is friends and family.

The project is getting together with friends, inviting friends for Shabbat meals (not every meal), making the effort to do all those 'coffees' that I really want to do but the winter kept getting in the way, and spending time with family (over Pesach).

Basically, it's a kick in the behind to get off the sofa, out from under the blankets, and reconnect with the world. There's a sub-plot to this project because in order to make all those coffee dates I have to be up to date with my work. And in order to invite people over I have to be on top of the housework because I can't invite people to a dirty house. So it's also a general kick to get going with everything. Those lazy winter evenings that started at 5 pm are over (and we didn't even do one jigsaw-puzzle).

Tonight is the actual night of Purim in Jerusalem so we're starting off in grand style by going to a Purim service and party at friends. It's dressing up for those who want to, a vegetarian potluck, and a lovely get-together of old and new friends. I'm taking potato salad. And tomorrow we have some friends coming over at lunchtime for the Purim meal. Not a bad beginning to a month of socializing.

So  here's to a sociable March. And of course to finishing off that paperwork thing, continued decluttering, and finishing spring cleaning.

The R2BC Linky is back at Michelle's Mummy from the Heart for the month of March. I'll be hanging out there as usual with the gang.

An Empty Nest - R2BC

For a moment we wondered why we needed wanted new furniture.

When a system works it works. And this is one of my reasons to be cheerful this week. I'm on the linky over at Becky's Lakes Single Mum as usual for a round of cheerful blogs.

1
The Other Reason
The weather has been in the 20sC all week. No coats, no heating needed, windows flung open... OK, I won't rub it in and we are forecast a couple of rainy days next week.

2 
The Expensive Clarinet
The Clarinet is turning out to be extremely expensive. We walked down to the music shop to buy a packet of 10 reeds (for 85 nis) and we came home having ordered two new sofas (considerably more than 85 nis). Honestly, we just popped into the furniture shop to have a look and to check out the comfort of some of the cheap sofas I'd seen online. (The cheap ones are not comfortable btw.)

Going ....

In fairness I've been looking at sofas for a long time. My sofa was bequeathed to me by a lady who bought the wrong size for her enormous apartment. So she had it moved to my apartment and she ordered a bigger one. I'd had it for about 17 years.

It was hand-made and very good quality but nine years of children using it as a climbing frame had made the cream fabric decidedly grubby. And the down filled cushions were always slipping onto the floor and needed puffing up all the time. I took the grubby cover off and threw out the cushions. I put an old foam mattress covered in a fitted sheet, for the seat, and acquired new cushions with my free gift voucher from when I bought my fridge. I'd turned a very expensive sofa into a student couch.

... going ...

But it was still bulky to move and so I hardly ever cleaned under it. Though it was all right that it was 2 m wide, the arms flanked out taking up another 15 cm at each end. When the room is only 3 m wide this was an annoying waste of space. It was just heavy and too big. I wanted something lighter, smaller, cleaner, more practical, and less brown. We are trying to get away from the brown.

I ordered two two-seaters on legs so that you can clean underneath them. These are everywhere atm. I don't know if it's because people want lighter, airier spaces these days (to go with all the trendy decluttering and minimalizing?) or if it's because people want something that the robot can hoover under. (The Robot - that automatic disc that goes round your apartment and hoovers for you while you're out.) Anyway, they are daintier and four people can have an armrest or two people (us) can lay out on them. They arrive in two weeks.

... gone.

The sofa and the armchair had to go. As the sofa was free to  me and was bereft of cushions (I let them have the mattress and its sheet cover but not my cushions) I decided that the best way to get rid of it without the cost of paying removers to take it down three flights of stairs, was to give it away on facebook. I also offered the chair that has a big bottom-sized dent in the seat.

I tidied up and took photos of the sofa as it was offered (undressed) and also with the cushions on so people could see what it could look like when dressed. It looked really nice and cozy. We almost wondered why we had even bought new furniture.

There was a lot of interest from facebook but in the end three Filipinos turned up at 10pm with an old car. Between them they got the sofa, and the chair, downstairs and tied onto the car at no expense to anyone. They drove off at about 3 mph with all their lights flashing. The sofa on top and the chair sticking out the back.

DD cried. She hates change.

It only took five hours! Who knew?

If I'd known it would take only five hours to clear the living room I'd have waited until the new sofas were on their way. I thought it might take a couple of weeks to find someone who wanted the old furniture and then to arrange a convenient time for the removal. I know I could have given the guys who brought the new sofas some money to take the old sofa down but I was being cheap and I wanted it to go to a good home, not left by the bins. (Although people also take used furniture from by the bins).

So we'll hang out in the bedroom for a while and dream about our new living room. And hope it arrives early.

R2BC - The Spring Edition

The street light eclipses the Supermoon. See below where I cropped it out.

Yes Spring has sprung here in Israel. I saw some almond blossoms on my way to school the other day. On Wednesday we celebrated Tu Bshvat, the New Year for Trees, and the weather just keeps on getting warmer. We're now in the late teens C, with blues skies and happy hearts. So plenty of Reasons 2B Cheerful this week. The Linky is back with Becky this month, on Lakes Single Mum. 

1
Spring
See above. And additionally, a bit of warm weather makes everything fine. I am enjoying my school teaching again, as I do every year as soon as the cold weather passes. We finished the first semester, We are in February which is a lot closer to fun festivals like Purim and Passover than January was and seemed. At college I get three Tuesdays off work for the mid-semester break (the fourth Tuesday is my students' exam so I'm hands on all day.)

That's better.

I've given up on getting a snow day this year. It's almost certainly not going to happen. It was a very mild winter although they are forecasting more rain in the middle of the month. We're still using the heating in the evenings just to take off the chill and for a pleasant apres-shower experience, but not at all during the day.

And to think I used to call February the Monday morning of the year. Well it was and maybe still is in old Blighty. I think it used  to be here too but the winters have got shorter. Oooh crikey! Note to self - go vegan, stop using plastic, swim to London for the holidays....

All the fun of the....

2
The School Fair
LOL, DD and her friend came home with 32 shekels each (about £7.50) from those little bags of old Kinder Surprises and other clutter around their bedrooms. And they probably spent a good 10 shekels each at other stalls. We didn't take any extra money with us so we were well chuffed with the extra pocket money this week.

DD and her business partner.
The sun was in my eyes so I just pointed and clicked.
I had no idea they were both looking the other way.
#Rubbishphotographer

True to character, DD's friend wanted to save the money and was very strict about how much they could each spend. DD kept saying it's all about spending it not saving. My viewpoint was that all this money was going from stall to stall and it had to end up somewhere at the end of the fair. Anyway we did all right and I brought home our six leftover bags to give my youngest pupils as treats.

A lot of cupcakes, cookies and sweets were eaten but there were also less sugary options for refreshments - a pasta stand, popcorn, two fruit salad stalls, a strawberries and cream stall, fruit skewers, and a fruit smoothie stall.

As always the kids were very enterprising with one member of each team going round peddling their wares while the other minded the shop. I saw one boy sell a stallholder some popcorn for a shekel and while he was there, he bought something off the stall for a shekel. The shekel was handed back. I don't know why they did't just swap as everything was a shekel and there were no taxes to declare.

I thought this pancakes and toppings stall was a very good idea.

3
Report Card
DD got her report card for the first semester. It was a solid B report. She was a bit disappointed because she's come a long way this year and so expected more. I was very pleased with it. Having always been a C+ sort of gal myself, a B report is to be celebrated imo.

4
Supermoon
Apparently there was a Supermoon on Wednesday. People on facebook were urging me to look eastwards and be amazed. As my apartment faces west, I had to go out. Meh, it was big. Someone said something about an eclipse and the moon going blue and red. I didn't see anything like that but it was big and I got an eerie photo of the end of my street.