Midlife Panache

Too cool for blogging about.

Today I started a new blog called Midlife Panache.

After 10 years of blogging as Midlife Singlemum, it's time for a change. I've explained it all on the new blog. Just click on the link. 

Thank you for sticking with me all these years while I muddled through single motherhood. Thank you for the comments and the likes on facebook. I'm not exactly at the empty nest stage yet but DD turned 12 and no longer wants to be featured on a blog. 

It's time to blog about me and the big wide world outside. Please come over and check it out. See you on the other side. 

Rachel (aka Midlife Singlemum)  

Such Is Life

I'd like to say, "trying to stay healthy,"
but I'm way beyond that and now into
"trying to get healthy again." 

This week, after receiving two messages from blog-friends about my absence,  I realised that you can't just disappear from the blogosphere with no word of explanation to your blog friends. 

Apart from not having much to write about due to the current restrictions on going anywhere, seeing only a small circle of people, working from home, etc... I've been reluctant to write anything about how I'm organising the apartment, how we binge watch tv series together into the night, coping with zoom teaching, cooking and sewing, or any other pass-times that are keeping us contentedly jogging along during corona times. 

Even mentioning sitting out on our balcony and enjoying the view with a cup of coffee in hand seems like a slap in the face to those who live in less comfortable domiciles and cannot go out. A Reasons 2B Cheerful post at his time would just be rubbing salt in the wounds. 

Everyday I read on FB about people who've lost their jobs or businesses that they've spent years building up, about people who can no longer afford to pay their rents or mortgages and are afraid of becoming homeless, and people who can't afford to put food on the table. In Israel we now have 25% unemployment. Like everywhere, the tourist, hospitality and entertainment industries are dead, many shops and other commercial concerns are shuttered until further notice, and those who still do have money are not spending it anyway. 

Added to that the fact that I have an almost teenager who doesn't want me to write about her or post photos of her on the blog or occupy any space or speak or breathe. Fair enough but take out the 'mum' bit and I'm just Midlife Single, which is a bit sad and certainly doesn't define me. I thought of closing the blog down but I still want to write. I though of changing the name or starting a new blog. All still possibilities as I approach my 10 year blogiversay in January. 

So that's where I'm at re the blog. Here are a few other observations from my dining table in November 2020.  

1. Whilst actually teaching far fewer hours than in previous years and saving on the travel time, my online obligations to the school seem to stretch and take the whole day, even on days when I'm supposedly not teaching. 

2. Princess Diana died because she didn't wear her seat-belt. End of. 

3. Just call me Harry and wife are desperately trying to stay relevant in an organisation that they left. It would be like me calling the Head of the school I left a few years ago and asking her to include me in the school magazine. No one would care. The Markles are playing at being Royals in America and no one cares.

4. It's my daughter's Bat Mitzva (12th birthday) in three weeks and I'm waiting to find out the regulations for the next few weeks before trying to arrange something meaningful with fewer than 10 people. Or a few fewer than 10 people events. I'd like to take solace in the fact that this has saved me a fortune by not having a big party, but I'm not earning the fortune that would have [eventually] paid for it all.

I can't promise to be back next week, or even the week after. Probably another round up of thoughts and a brief catch-up in December. Which is a shame because I've just made it back into the TOTS100 top 500 and I'm going to slide down the scale again next month. Oh well. Such is life. 

Reasons 2B Cheerful And Grateful

Some Chihuli for serenity

After yesterdays's meltdown post it's time for a Reasons 2B Cheerful and Grateful, Here are some of my reasons in no particular order:

1. The internet makes us feel connected. During the 1991 Gulf War we could only talk to one person at a time by landline, if they were home. News was passed one person at a time and from the hourly news on the radio. Back then we felt informed but thinking about it now, it was a joke.

2. I have one child who is old enough to entertain herself. We are two people in a not big but certainly spacious enough apartment with a balcony big enough to sit out on. And even though DD spilled water on her laptop a few weeks ago, so we are one computer down, we still have two more laptops, two phones, and a smart tv with Netflix. Oh yes, and books to last the duration.

3. My next door neighbour who is in quarantine got her corona test results back this week and she tested negative. Also, of the 60 boys (two classes) from my school who are in quarantine until tomorrow evening after a visiting teacher came down with corona, none of them have tested positive so far.

4. Home school starts at 09.00 which is far more civilized than the normal 08.00, especially as we don't have to allow time to get there looking presentable. Call me British, but I'm British and we're programmed to start at 9.

5. After screaming and shouting at me yesterday, and reducing me to tears, DD came to give me a big hug and apologize. Hearing her say, "I'm sorry Mummy," made me grateful that she knows how to say sorry. It's so important to be able to say sorry when you messed up or lost it.

6. The message is going around and sinking in that three assignments per day per child is overwhelming for many families with lots of children, parents working from home, and limited tech devices.

7. DD's teacher asked them all to write on the class whatsapp what they learned today. The first child wrote that it's possible to learn at home and it's actually fun. Then 28 students all said the same thing. So DD wrote that too. Me: "What? After all the hysterics today?"
DD: "Mummy, you don't understand, you have to be more laid back."
ME: "You mean you have to lie?"
DD: "Sort of, but it's called laid back."

8. I won the internet today but I cheated. I saw a meme on Whatsapp in Hebrew (thank you Yana) and I translated into English for the English corona in Israel facebook group..... The truth is that it's not so boring to be stuck at home. However, it is interesting that one sack of rice contains 7,885 grains of rice and another sack - 8,143. Nearing 200 haha emojis as I write.

9. Lots of blogging fodder and the time to blog. If I don't get back into the TOTS100 top 500 by next month I'll be extremely miffed.

10. We, and all our family are still healthy.

I wish you good health and sanity for the duration. xxx

Pondering In Decreasing Lines

One of the lucky ones.

On the way to Kew Gardens we approached the river via Brentford. The overwhelming opinion in the car was: why on earth did we all buy those awful nylon sheets in the 1970s? (Remember Brentford Nylons!?) FYI, the conclusion we came to was that in the 1960s our sheets were sent out to be laundered every week. The nylon sheets didn't need ironing so it was a big saving in either money or time. I'm not quite sure what happened since as we now use cotton sheets that certainly don't get ironed and they're fine. Maybe it's the polyester? Who knows?

On the way home from Kew, and just outside the gardens, we went round a large roundabout - I think they call it a gyratory system - with lots of trees on it. I felt so sorry for those trees for if the boundaries of the land donated to the gardens had been just slightly different, these trees too would be in the beautiful Kew Gardens instead of in the middle of a noisy and polluted gyratory roundabout. It seems there's a location lottery for trees just as there is for people.

After all the decluttering (>1500 items out), if I had to stay sealed in my home with no internet, would I still have enough reading material to last a couple of years? I think the answer is yes, however I'd die of starvation long before I ran out of books. A more pertinent question is do I have enough clutter left to get rid of another 1500 items. I think the answer is sadly, also yes.

We passed a load of rubbish accumulating in the street around the base of a tree. It was old cigarette boxes and other wrappers wantonly disgarded. DD was shocked: "Well that's a serious amount of pollutination!" I think we have a new family word. 😁

Why is it that every film I look for on Netflix appears on that list of films they don't have but here are a load of other random films I have no interest in, that you might like instead?

I've been awol and even considered giving up blogging. But I can't. I love my blog.

R2BC - Festival of Weeks

Anticipating the wheat harvest.
Or perhaps just thinking about the pizza we ordered for them.

For all my excitement last week about coming to the end of the academic year and having more time on my hands... turns out it was a bit premature and it has been another busy week. Here are my Reasons 2B Cheerful. There's a linky over at Mich's Mummy from the Heart, where us cheerful bloggers hang out.

1
Wedding
On Thursday night I went to a wedding of the son of old friends from my teenage years. The parents and I had loads of adventures together in England in the 1970s - early 80s, from camping in the Wye Valley to campaigning for the freedom of Jews in Soviet Russia. We moved to Israel around the same time. We spent Shabbatot (pl. of Shabbat) together, I celebrated with them the births and Bar/Bat Mitzvas of each of their four children, I worked with the wife for a few years in educational publishing where we wrote maths textbooks together, and they offered me their garden for a baby blessing party for DD.

More about weddings in Israel in another post, but suffice to say this one was lots of fun. Lots of old friends from those early years, lots of catching up and lots of great dancing to music from our era. Perhaps belting out the words to 'I Will Survive!' which aren't the most appropriate lyrics for a wedding, was a bit strange but we went with the flow.

3
Sleepover
Going to a wedding requires extensive pre-planning on my part. I have to rush home from work, shower and change, if it's a day that DD has gymnastics - take DD to gymnastics, arrange for her to get from Gymnastics to my friend Sarit who graciously has her to stay for the night*, organize how DD will get from Sarit's to school in the morning**, find my way to the agreed meeting point to get a ride to the wedding, make sure my ride is also willing to bring me home again afterwards, and only then relax and enjoy.

*Think about it. If I get home some time after midnight, apart from the enormous cost of a babysitter, what would I then do with the babysitter? I wouldn't expect someone to walk home at that time of night and I don't have a car to take her, nor would I put a teenage girl in a taxi on her own at that time of night.

**On this occasion I let DD miss Stupid Friday at school - stupid because it finishes at 11.45 - and Sarit dropped her off here on her way out.

This is actually the second wedding I've been to in two weeks. It's wedding season. Sarit had DD both times so big big thank you. xxx

2
63 Up
There was much talk about the long awaited 63 Up which was screened in the UK over three nights this week. Again, I want to write a whole post about it, but I found all the amazing episodes, even 63 Up, on You Tube and binge-watched the whole lot. Coupled with the wedding I went to, the program makes you assess your own life as well as watching the lives of the Up 'children'. The series is charming and alarming and I can see why the participants dread it coming around every seven years. Anyway, more about that in a different blog.

3
Blogging Along
Last week I committed to blogging every day in June. I managed four days out of seven this week. This was largely due to binge-watching Up on Wednesday, work and the wedding on Thursday and a final push to finish report writing on Friday followed by conking out in the early evening. But hey, I'm fine with 4/7. It's better than 4/31 which is about what I managed last month - not even four I think. I'm still up for it and hope to do better from now on.

4
Shavuot
Tonight and tomorrow is the festival of Shavuot (lit. Weeks). Traditionally we're celebrating the end of the seven-week grain harvest that started with the barley harvest on Pesach (Passover) and continued with the wheat harvest. Later they tagged celebrating the giving of the Torah on Mt Sinai, onto this harvest festival. Lots of eating, especially cheesecake. Again, more about this in its own blog post.

Have a good week y'all.

Holiday Guilt

Sunburst from the Chihuly exebition at Kew Gardens

Believe me, it's a thing. It starts before the holiday with things to get done before we leave. Be up to date with work commitments (prep and grading), paperwork (taxes, paying bills, filing, etc...) and cleaning the apartment. The time gets shorter and shorter and we leave for our holiday with work unfinished, paperwork in a pile on the desk, and a whisk round the apartment with a lick and a promise. I should have managed my time more efficiently.

There is also the social media dilemma. I don't want to announce, even in emails, that we will be away for two weeks and thereby implying that the apartment will be empty. Of course I could mention my sumo-wrestler cousin who will be house-sitting with his two mastiffs, but that's like protesting too much - a transparent ruse. So I keep quiet and feel terribly guilty that I'm going to disappear from the blog and people might worry that I've been run over by a bus, or worse, lost interest in writing. Thank you Margie from Toronto, for your concern. I do appreciate it under my guilt. And sorry, sorry, sorry.

The truth will out of course and friends write on facebook, "will you be in London for Passover?" I try to ignore these questions but I feel guilty.

And then my friend's mother suggests we meet for coffee over the festival and I would love to see her. I was the recipient of her hospitality, kindness and wisdom as a teenager and it would be fabulous to catch up. I PM her that I'll call her daughter when I get to London. And other friends whom I'd also love to see, message me and I get all future President of America and I cannot tell a lie. But I arrive in London and I don't call them because I remember that I have a 10 year daughter who doesn't want to catch up with all my old friends over coffee and also doesn't want to spend her whole holiday playing on Gandma's computer while I'm doing said catching up. It's a sad situation - guilty if I do and guilty that I don't.

I get lazy about blogging sometimes but I vary rarely miss a Reasons 2B Cheerful post. A week before the holiday I wrote on twitter to the regular contributing bloggers, that I'm sorry I'm always late with mine but I don't usually have time to get to it before Saturday. A couple of the others also said they preferred Saturday and so it was decided to change the R2BC day to Saturday. Then I disappeared for two weeks without telling anyone even though the move to Saturday was mainly because of me. Guilty.

Whilst in London we went with my cousin to see the Chihuly exhibition in Kew Gardens. It was absolutely stunning and deserves its own blog post. Later that day my cousin posted her photos on facebook and tagged me. I accepted the tag without thinking of the consequences and the cat was out of the bag. "Oh, I see you're in London," wrote Mich from Mummy from the Heart (one of the two R2BC hosts). "I wondered where you were?" Sorry, sorry, sorry, I should have told you.

Of course I did intend to write some location neutral blog posts while I was away but with limited computer access and the fact that it's much more fun playing kalooky and watching endless recorded episodes of Escape to the Country until 1 am and then getting up too late to accomplish anything in the mornings, I didn't blog. Moving back into my mother's house brings with it a certain amount of teenage behaviour and the associated guilt about wasting all that time.

About wasting time. We love being in London. We love the weather, we love the parks, we love the supermarkets, we love the tv, and we love shopping in Watford. We also love a day in London proper (as opposed to the suburbs where we live) and other outings like Kew Gardens, Legoland, the theatre, etc... But we don't have a driving urge to visit loads of museums and monuments, or even to be out and about every day. This holiday involved celebrating Passover which revolved around delicious meals at my sister's house with all the cousins and other guests (including two Seder nights), and a lot of going round to people's houses for tea, coffee, or a light supper. We're a bit grounded as we don't eat out at all during the eight days of the festival. But we're in London! Just visiting for a short time! I feel so ungrateful and lazy that we don't make the most of all that culture and entertainment on our doorstep for a short time only. But we don't. This is why I will probably never be a travel writer and another source of guilt.

We travel home on the early morning flight from Luton that requires getting up at 3 am on Sunday to go to the airport. I don't bother going to sleep the night before. We get home at about 5 pm because we're just in time to hit the rush hour as we enter Jerusalem. I then have to go out to the little supermarket around the corner because we've no food in the house. I make some supper for DD, tell her to put her dishes in the sink when she's finished and to turn off all the lights when she goes to bed. I go to bed at 7 pm and leave her to it. She hates it when I do that. Guilty.

I wake up at 11 pm with a dehydration headache. I take a paracetamol, drink coffee, and then drink a large green tea because the coffee didn't seem to work. I can't sleep. I read until 3.30 am, sleep for 3 1/2 hours and turn up for my first day of school exhausted and, actually, late. Guilty.

That night I fall into bed at 7 pm again. Now I've done this to DD two nights in a row. Guilty. I ignore the phone when it rings at about 10.30 so my mum doesn't get to tell me that my brother is engaged. I read it on facebook the next morning. Guilty. I still haven't unpacked and it's now Tuesday. But I have four hours of teaching at college on Tuesday afternoon so I need to prepare those lessons rather than unpack. Guilty. On Wednesday I after school I should have graded all the papers that came in from online courses over the holiday. But it's Holocaust Memorial Day and I want it to be meaningful so I make DD watch a movie about Anne Frank with me. Then I tell her that it's not appropriate to play on the computer or watch You Tube on this night so we both go to bed. On Thursday after school DD has gymnastics until 7.15 pm. We get home at 7.30 and there are three weeks' worth of emails to deal with so no grading tonight. Guilty. Today is Friday and I have to do some grading before Shabbat comes in as we don't work tomorrow. But I will unpack tomorrow - only six days after we came home. Guilty again.

Such a little word yet it generates so much anxiety.

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.

A Lifestyle Change - R2BC

We Love London!

"I'll still be blogging," I wrote back on December 1st 2018, when we announced that Reasons 2B Cheerful was taking a month long break for the holidays. And then I didn't. Of course we didn't stop living, heaven forfend, but we went to London for Hanuka and when we returned after only one week away, work suddenly got very hectic and it got cold and it always takes me a while to settle back into real life after a holiday. LSS, I've not blogged for about six weeks.

We had a fabulous time in London. My Mum took us all to see "The Lion King," as a big 10th Birthday celebration for DD. It was amazing. I can cross that trip to Africa off the bucket list as I feel like I've been - and without the malaria shots or risk of ebola virus. We had lots of family Hanuka parties - ours, my sister's in-laws, and an extra one for DD's birthday supper. We went to my nephew's school play which was lots of fun. If you're counting, that's five evenings out of the six we had available. In between we went shopping, we saw the lights in the West End, went to the Hanuka candle lighting and concert in Trafalgar Square, and hung out with friends. It was a really lovely break.

I thought about blogging. A lot. I kept thinking of things or seeing something and I'd instantly go into blog mode - how I was going to write this up and what photo would I use to illustrate it. And then I'd have an hour to write and I resisted. I don't know why. I certainly wasn't short of things to say.

One thing became very clear over the past few weeks, and it's something I've seen in other parenting blogs that have survived the years. DD turned 10 during the holidays and this blog has changed over time, as we have changed. It's no longer just a parenting blog but has evolved into a bit of everything. A lifestyle blog? I'd like to write a lifestyle blog but I feel like I need a lifestyle.

Obviously I have a lifestyle. It's sort of chaotic, lived by default, lots of procrastination, and, it must be said, not the role model I want to portray for my DD. There's a book called, "The Secret Life of a Slummy Mummy." So it's been done and I could live up to a similar role, but I don't want to. We have fun and enjoy being laid back about things. However, you can be so laid back it's hard to take your eyes off the clouds above and deal successfully with the real life around you. I feel I need to live more purposefully.

New Year's Day came and went as work pulled the rug out beneath me. I needed to write school reports, hand in end of semester exams, and at my college they suddenly announced that all course materials have to be online. That means no more photocopying as the students can access and print out all their materials themselves. One of my courses is online so no panic there. One of my courses is planned and ready to be transferred but it's an enormous amount of work as you don't just want to scan and repeat. If you're already changing the format, you want to edit and improve. And adjust to a different way of teaching whereby the students don't have to photocopy reams of papers every week.

My third course is new to me this year. I've been making it up as I go along. I've been finishing the lesson plans on Monday nights and photocopying the material for everyone on Tuesday mornings before the lesson. It's been hit and miss but I figured that by next year I'll have lesson plans ready for the whole year. Except now I can't do that because they want everything up and accessible for the rest of the year. So lots of work hit me all at once.

I did the inevitable when faced with such a tsunami. I got sick. And DD followed my lead because she also wanted some time off school during a week of stormy weather. I had the whole week at home - some for my sickness and some because I couldn't leave DD at home on her own all day. I didn't get any actual work done, but I do feel refreshed and ready to hit the ground running tomorrow.

I need a plan. Planning is my favourite thing to do. Implementing the plans, less so. I don't know where this "Project Lifestyle" will take me but I'm up for the ride. I'm feeling cheerful about it. So, a bit late but.... Ready! Steady! 2019!

Reasons 2B Cheerful is back with Becky for January 2019 and I'm joining the R2BC linky over at Lakes Single Mum. 

Blog Guilt - Is It A Thing?

Something I didn't mention,

Do any other bloggers have blog guilt?

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to write my weekly Reasons 2B Cheerful post and I felt that I couldn't do it without first mentioning the fatal shooting of 11 worshipers in a synagogue in Philadelphia. Obviously that didn't belong in a R2BC post so I delayed the post and wrote about this and other tragedies that occurred that week.

Today I wanted to write a Tuesday Tidbits post. I don't often have funny things that DD says or does to write about now that she's growing up. But a couple of nights ago something funny happened and of course I thought of blogging about it. However, I'm still feeling guilty that I didn't even mention the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) that was last week.

Here I am with a platform that's read by 300 people a day and I didn't write about the Kristallnacht Pogroms. It's was the 80th anniversary, not the 77th or 79th but a significant number that should be commemorated. On the night of November 9th 1938, all over Nazi Germany (including Austria and Sudetenland) Jewish shops were vandalized, looted and torched, Jewish families were herded into the town squares where they were attacked and humiliated, 300.000 Jewish men were arrested and deported to prison camps, Jewish books and and ritual items were burned, and 1400 synagogues were desecrated and torched. Ninety-one Jews were murdered.

This was the turning point for Jews in Nazi Germany. Whereas previously, many had thought the Nazi threat would blow over, now they knew that they were in mortal danger. For most of them, this realization came too late and they were trapped. Some of those who did manage to leave thought they would be safe in France, Belgium, Holland, and other Western European countries. Only those who made it to England and the Americas were spared the horrors of The Holocaust.

On Sunday was Armistice Day, 11/11, when we remember the fallen soldiers from both world wars. My facebook feed was full of my friends' photos of their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents in uniform. Proud and sad at the same time of the tremendous, often ultimate, sacrifices made by their families. Me? 300 readers and I wrote nothing.

Last night and today Southern Israel has been under rocket fire from Hamas in the Gaza strip. People have died, houses have been destroyed. Schools in the south were cancelled today and until further notice. My friends who live there have spent over 24 hours no more than 15 seconds from their safe rooms (rooms of reinforced concrete) or bomb shelters.

The country is talking about whether we are heading for another war against Hamas. Soldier reservists are waiting to hear if they will be called up. A school in Jerusalem has announced that it will take in any children from the south who want/need to get away and find them families to stay with. And that's just the one school I heard about. Many friends have offered to host families under fire who just need a break from it all.

With all that going on I just can't write about DD's funny sayings.

A couple of weeks ago a friend marked the Yarhzeit (anniversary of death) of her husband who died far too young. She asked that we all do a Mitzvah for Michael (a good deed). I immediately thought, what a good name for a blog post, and I had every intention of writing about it. I did two mitzvot (pl.) during that week. I can't write about either of them. Both were good deeds for specific people who either read this blog or know people who do. To write about how these 'poor' souls needed my help would humiliating for them if they found out.

And there was one mitzvah, another one, that I was able to do and I could've written about it here. It was a general offer that was taken up by a complete stranger, via a facebook group. No one would know who the beneficiary is. But it doesn't feel right to brag about good deeds. Either you do them or you don't, but to tell everyone how wonderfully you behaved... nah, not cool.

So instead of writing blog posts every few days, I've been consumed with guilt about things I'm not mentioning and would feel guilty about mentioning other events that happened. I'm wrestling with the notion that a relatively successful blog (successful in that it's been going almost eight years and people read it) brings certain obligations and responsibilities.

I could say, "I don't write about politics," but that wouldn't be real as politics concern me. I've grown out of cute stories about motherhood, or at least DD has grown past it. I want this blog to be about real life but my real life involves others who don't always want to be blogged about. Sometimes it's hard to find a satisfactory middle ground.

Blog Guilt. Is it a thing?

Home Sweet Home - R2BC

Sunset over the Mediterranean

August 16th and I've not written one blog post this month. (Well I have now obvs.) And I've missed at least two Reasons 2B Cheerful - Sorry ladies! But now I'm back on the Linky at Mummy From the Heart with Mich. We've been up and down the country, camped, swum, walked, eaten, played and laughed. I'll be writing about everything (well not everything) over the next few days.


1
Home Sweet Home
DD and I got home yesterday evening from three days on the Golan Heights. We went with friends, our Summer Holiday Family. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves but last night, after a quick trip to the grocery, a long shower and a light supper, we were in bed by 9 pm and slept like logs for 10 hours.

2
Nesting
Today I pottered about the house. The laundry got done. I'm up to date with my summer course grading. The plants are back on the balcony (full story tomorrow). I've had time to blog again. God's in His heaven and all's right with the world.

3
Badge Of Honour
Apparently while I was away Feedspot selected Midlife Singlemum as one of the top 10 midlife parenting blogs on the web. One wonders how many midlife parenting blogs there are. Anyway, I'm number 6 so I'm ahead of at least four others. And I get to display another badge of honour - eyes right. Thank you Feedspot, it's nice to know I'm not just writing to myself and my three closest friends.

The Blogiversary R2BC

DD loved bowling yesterday. 

CORRECTION: It's not my 8th Blogiversary, it's only my 7th. I made a mistake.

Today is my 7th Blogiversary. Happy Blogiversary to me! I think this is the longest time I've ever stuck at anything (besides teaching and being a mother - and no choice with those). So I'm joining the R2BC linky over at Mich's Mummy from the Heart as part of my Blogiversary celebrations. (Actually there are no other Blogiversary celebrations - this is it.) And here are my reasons 2B cheerful for this week.

1
Blogiversary
It's my 7th Blogiversary. I may have mentioned that already. Almost 870,000 views over 920 posts. This year I want to break the 1,000,000 views. I'm not sure about passing 1,000 posts. I think maybe it's time to weed out some of the weaker posts from the beginning. And the posts where the photos or videos have mysteriously disappeared, which is extremely annoying. Anyhoo, congrats to me.

2
Work
I finished writing my reports this week. I also caught up with a load of grading for my online college course. Still a fair bit of college grading to do. I also got completely up to date with my freelance writing.

-1
Just as I was planning all the other Project January jobs I was going to get done this weekend, the second half of the freelance assignment arrived. So that's another 10 hours I'd not planned for in the coming week. (Although it does mean it will all be done in January, which is what I wanted).

3
Stormy Weather
We had another big rain storm last night. DD didn't go to school today. It's hardly worth going on a Friday morning anyway as they finish at 11.45 and do only 'light' lessons, so when the weather is bad on a Friday I let her stay home if she wants to.

-2
It didn't snow. Although no one wants snow on a Friday/Saturday, we were hoping for maybe no school on Thursday or a bad snowfall that would give us Sunday off. No such luck. However there is another storm forecast for the end of next week....

4
Bowling
DD went bowling for a birthday party yesterday evening. She loved it. She's asked me at least three times since last night when she can go again. I'm delighted to have something that she enjoys that's close by and that we can do together. Could we have found our sport?

5
Online Delivery
As I watched the thunderstorm this morning, I smugly waited for my supermarket delivery that I'd ordered on Wednesday and scheduled for this morning. I only occasionally do online orders. It's usually when I need to buy another 8kg bag of laundry powder and/or when I have enough loyalty points for a free online delivery. When these two events collide I take the opportunity to stock up on non-perishables as well as my weekly shop.

-3
There are some pitfalls to online orders but that's for a whole other post. Possibly tomorrow if I get done cooking up the 10kg of potatoes I accidently ordered (I thought I was ordering 2kg but turns out it was 2 sacks) and finding things to do with the 30 [small Middle-Eastern] cucumbers that make up 2kg of cucumbers. (Who knew cucumbers were so light?)

Eating in the Tabernacle - R2BC

Once again there are Reasons 2B Cheerful. Becky at Lakes Single Mum has taken back the baton for October and I've joined the linky as usual.


1
Blogging
I took up the challenge from Jax at Making It Up to blog for all 30 days of September. In the end I only managed 18/30 but that was good enough. My life just isn't that fast to have something of general interest to write every day. Still, the 18 posts were enough to boost my stats and increase my TOTS100 ranking for the second month running. I'm now only 39 tantalizing ranks away from being back in the top 500. So I'm going for another month of lots of blogging to see if I can break the 500 barrier for the first time in almost two years.


2
Another holiday
We went back to school on September 1st, we had a few days off for Rosh Hashana, nothing for Yom Kippur this year as it fell on a weekend, and now we have a whole 12 days for Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles). Sukkot is only an eight day holiday but the day before and the weekend after made a great block of days off. Of course this is only for teachers. Everyone else with young children has to juggle childcare for a week while they are at work and the kids are off.

3
Lunch in the sukkah
We had a lovely day with friends today when we were invited to lunch in their sukkah. A sukkah is a temporary dwelling outside (a tabernacle) with a natural covering through which you can see the stars. It symbolizes the dwellings in the desert inhabited by the children of Israel as they journeyed from Egypt for 40 years after the exodus, until they reached the Land of Israel. (Funny how it didn't take Joseph and later Jacob and his other sons, nearly as long to make the original journey from Israel to Egypt.)

Sunday Snippets

Shut the Box

Persevering. Sunday Snippets is an invention of Jax Blunt on her blog Making It Up. I've done it before but it never became a habit. This month Jax set herself a challenge to blog all 30 days of September. I decided to join her but missed a week of days in the chaos and exhaustion of going back to school. I've not given up though and I'm still aiming to blog as much as I can this month.

Realizing that despite the heatwave of last week, this weekend the summer really did end. I had to wait all day to do laundry while the previous washes dried on the line. During the summer the washing took 2 - 3 hours to dry. I could have done laundry all day if I had enough things to wash or if I felt like I needed clean sheets and towels every day - which I don't obviously.

Wondering how this happened: I spent the summer decluttering and organizing my house only to find that two weeks into the new school year, we are once again living in an enormous mess. Luckily we have a few more holidays over the next few weeks because of the Jewish Festivals. God always gives you a second chance.

Discovering a design fault. We have this game called Shut the Box, which a friend sent for DD last Chanuka. I admit that we've not played it that much but we  never noticed the error - or possibly an intended quirk? (I don't think so.) DD just showed me. How did we not see this before? Did you spot it?

Enjoying the cooler weather. It seems like nothing to you but, believe me, we suffered this week - possibly more than during the whole of July/August which was bad enough.

Saving money by going back to my regular supermarket instead of shopping at the expensive boutique supermarket around the corner. My regular super is a ten minute walk away (downhill) and a 20 minute crawl back up the hill with a heavy trolley (yes I  have shopping-trolley, don't judge). I just could not do that trip in the heat. I could have taken taxis of course but the cost of the taxis was about the same a the savings so I didn't bother.

Sleeping well. DD has finally gone back to sleeping in her own bed after about two years of sleeping with me. We used to share a room in the winter to save on heating two bedrooms, and then separate in the spring, summer and autumn. But for the last couple of years she's not made the move back. I didn't mind too much but recently I noticed that I keep being woken in the night by stray elbows, knees and feet encroaching onto my side of the bed. It was probably always like this but only now it started to bother me. Well DD is bigger and I'm menopausal - nuff said.

Compromising by sharing the family bed on Friday nights when we don't have to get up in the morning. DD: "People say Shabbat is the best day, but it's not, it's Friday!"

Relaxing in our pyjamas the whole of Shabbat. DD wakes up on Shabbat morning with two question. Are we going anywhere today? Is anyone coming? She loves it when the answers are no and no as it was yesterday.

Week 1 Done And 546 For My Birthday - R2BC

DD playing with her friend's little brother in the park.
She's very good with little children. 

Here are my Reasons 2B Cheerful for this week. The linky is back with Michelle on Mummy From The Heart for the month of September.

1
Survival
Just getting through the first week of school is a worthy R2BC. This is what it was like... The children are all in different years obviously, so you get confused when talking about e.g. 5th Grade Girls and you actually mean 6th Grade Girls except when you really do mean 5th Grade Girls but the person you are speaking to is thinking 4th Grade Girls.

Some of the teachers have changed classes. They changed the places of the classrooms. We are all scrambling to finalize out timetables to fit in all sorts of groups and one-to-one tutoring so that the children involved don't miss anything vital. And the kids themselves are only given schedules day by day until it's all finalized. So when you ask a group (made up of pupils from three different classes) if we can meet on Thursdays in the 2nd lesson, they don't know because it's only Monday and they won't know what's happening on Thursday until Wednesday afternoon.

It's amazing how an early start and a full day of work can be so exhausting when you've been used to the long, lazy summer holidays. DD and I found ourselves struggling to keep our eyes open in the early evening at he begining of the week. By Thursday we were getting used to it but I still managed to keep to the planned 'in bed by 8 pm' for DD and 11 pm for me (well sometimes 12).

2
My Birthday
By vainly trying to hide my age, I apparently turned off the whole birthday notification thing on facebook. For one second I was upset that I'd not got 300 Happy Birthday greetings. Then I realized that it didn't really matter.

I got some lovely messages from good friends on Whatsapp, my cousin and a friend from LA emailed, my mum skyped, and one friend messaged me on facebook to say he remembered anyway (which is how I knew that I'd done a facebook fail). It was fine. I didn't need anything else and after day two at school, I was too tired to celebrate anyway.

However..... I blogged about it and then the messages came. They were even more special because a blog post requires a higher level of engagement than just responding to a notification with 'happy birthday x'.

3
Blogging
After a year of trying to claw my way back into the top 1000 blogs in the TOTS100 ranking, I suddenly jumped about 700 places back to 546 (555 in August and 546 in September). It was the only best birthday present I got. If I can get back into the top 500 it displays that on the badge on my blog.

I was once in the top 100 for about two months - back in the day when they had about 700 UK parent blogs registered. Then they jumped to 3,000 and I managed to stay in the top 500 for years. Now blogging has become a professional career in the advertising and PR fields and there are around 6,000 UK parent blogs registered with TOTS100.

I'm thrilled with 546 but I'm not sure how it happened. Maybe it's simply a matter of blogging more often - I posted 16 times in August. I certainly don't keep up with Instagram or Twitter much, which are two of the variables in the ranking equation. Maybe all the professional bloggers were away enjoying free promotional holidays during July and August so there were only actually 546 of us blogging over the summer?

I decided to join Jax in her Making It up Blogtember 30 Day Challenge. It's now September 8th and this is only my fourth blog. I've not given up entirely but mine might be only a 25 day challenge. And next month I may be back down in the 1,000s but I'll always treasure my 546 for my birthday.

The Very End - R2BC

This month's final Reasons 2B Cheerful and, as usual, I'm joining the R2BC linky with Becky on Lakes Single Mum. 

1
The very end of the long summer holiday.
I can feel that the evenings are already cooler. I am so through with the heat of July and August. Even though September can be just as hot as August, psychologically, it's not so hot even if it is, iyswim. We went out for pizza for supper to celebrate.

2
A week of sickness, but it was this week and not next week.
We came home from a lovely weekend away last weekend but all our plans for the week were sabotaged when DD got strep throat (a fever, very sore throat, and a hacking cough that would not go away) and was put on antibiotics. Then she got an infection under her crowned tooth and we had to have it removed (luckily it was a milk molar and we saw the adult tooth growing under the gum on the x-ray). I thanked the universe that she was sick this week and not next week when we are both back at school.

3
I have my timetable for next year. 
I'm a bit panicked as I have extra teaching hours and an extra day at school. However, as I keep telling myself, it's just a matter of having a routine that covers everything you need to do and being strict about sticking to it. It's the last bit I'm not so good at but on September 1st anything is possible.

4
Poster girl.
At the beginning of the year I set myself a loose target of  10 blog posts per month. Today I'm back on target with 80 posts on the last day of August. Yay me.

Supper At School - R2BC

Another week and more reasons 2B cheerful. I'm not mentioning the elections as all we know for sure is that, at the moment, nothing is for sure. As usual I'm joining the R2BC linky which is over at Becky's Lakes Single Mum for the month of June.

1
Supper At School

They had a Supper at School Shuk at DD's school to raise money for the end of year events. DD's class made desserts in cups. I was a bit tardy in seeing the list for contributions - I only got there 20 minutes after it'd been sent. Thus I missed the disposable tablecloths and plastic spoons options. I was also too late for the easy jellies. I was drawn to the chocolate mousse but raw eggs in 30 degree heat, not to mention the expense and the time involved..... I reinterpreted it as instant pudding and we made 20 cups of chocolate, butterscotch, and vanilla puddings. We added sprinkles.

DD wanted to take a tray of desserts out into the field and try to get some passing trade. I could have told her that selling is a thankless task. I'm useless at it. After a long time and only two sales she handed the tray to her friend who promptly sold the lot in about three minutes. *sigh* We have other talents.









2
Blog Ranking


I've been placed 57 in the Top 100 Single Moms Blogs list. I don't remember submiting my blog but I'm chuffed it was picked up anyway and placed at number 57.

In the tots 100 I also went up last month although I'm still in the 1200 range. There'll be a party when I break the top 1000 barrier again.

Beauty And The #Post40Bloggers - R2bC

BFFs at BATB

1
Beauty And The Beast
I was going to buy tickets for us and take DD to the Israel premiere of the new Beauty film. It was a charity performance and, for once, the premiere was in Jerusalem and not in Tel Aviv. However, our lovely friend Sally-Ann bought a spare ticket and invited DD as her treat.

It was indeed a treat as they went for pizza first and had ice-cream and sweets during. DD loved it all and came home after 9 pm, all smiles and excitement. She said, "Mummy, I saw Hermione, I recognised her straight away because she had the same face."

Thank you Sally-Ann, you and Hermione were a big hit.

2
Featured Blogger
I was invited to join Post40Bloggers so that they could feature one of my posts. And here I am - this week's featured blogger. I'm absolutely chuffed, bowled over, feeling like the bee's knees and full of it. Well why not?

Thank you Mel, I'm flattered to be chosen.

3
Love
And then there was this. It came home from school and was dropped in my lap. I'm going to send one back in the lunch box on Sunday. I know it's soppy but who cares. (Remember that though she's 8, DD's school education is almost all in Hebrew.)




I'm linking up with Reasons 2B Cheerful over at Mich's Mummy From The Heart. I took a quick peek earlier and there seems to be some extra activity this week. I hope so. It's spring and if bloggers can't find a few R2BCs in the first week of spring it's going to be long sad summer for them. The linky's open all week....

Sick But Not Too Sick - R2BC

Lemon tree growing. #SignOfSpring. No lemons yet

Time for another Reasons 2B Cheerful.

1
The Wizard of Oz
We went to a fabulous performance of the Wizard of Oz. I knew one of my pupils was in it, and her brother whom I taught last year. However, we were greeted at the door by another friend who was assistant director and in the chorus. Another friend designed and painted all the sets. Another friend of DD's was a Munchkin and four other friends' children were also in it. I've said it before - Jerusalem is a small city.

As I was scouring the programme for names of people I know - obligatory, it's rude not to - we met friends from the neighbourhood with their twin boys and an ex-colleague and friend with one of her daughters and 10 of her grandchildren! Then when we sat in our seats we found we were sitting next to another friend and her son. And there were others. Did I mention that Jerusalem is a small city? To be fair, the English speaking community is a sub-set of a small city so it's not unusual to meet people you know on these occasions.

We followed the yellow brick road back to the bus stop afterwards singing all the way.

2
Sick but not too sick
We woke up for schools (DD's and mine) this morning and we got dressed, Suddenly I heard a deep fog-horn cough from DD. And then another and another. She said that her throat doesn't hurt and that she wants to go to school. I almost let her. But that cough is frighteningly loud and seems to come from somewhere in the depths of her. I'd not be pleased if I were her teacher and she turned up with that cough. I also don't want it to develop into something worse.

Executive decision by me - DD stays home in the warm for the day.

Of course this means I have to stay with her. I wasn't happy about this. I feel a deep guilt about not going into school as other teachers have to cover for me. Even though two of the other English teachers have been off for several days this winter because their children have been ill, I still feel bad about it.

However, I'm home whether I wanted to be or not. And whilst I'm home, I'm catching up on everything while DD watches videos and drinks warm tea. And it's rather nice to have an unexpected Thursday at home. (Check list: Dishes in sink, laundry, blog (done), grading, answer emails, tidy and clean apartment, drink lots of coffee... )

(BTW: At my school and at college many teachers bring their sick children into school with them for the day. Does this happen anywhere else? I know one doesn't want to miss a day of work but there has to be something wrong with a child who is too sick to attend his/her own school/nursery being brought in to spread their germs at another school. What are your experiences in this department? In our case the point is for DD to get better so if I'm dragging her out to my school she may as well be in her own school.)

3
Blogiversay
It's my 6th Blogiversay today! My stats are running at a very healthy (though not viral) 1,000+ views a day. Between you and me, I think I must be being used by some English language schools in Russia, China and India as there seems to be a lot of daily interest from North and East Asia. And my Klout score is a respectable 50. (Those who know what this means will know what I mean.) TOTS100 took a slide this month which was very surprising considering all the other numbers but though I'm down, I'm not out and still trying to claw my way back into the top 1000. I always say that it's the other blogs upping their game rather than me slipping.

All in all it was a good blogging year. Ten more posts than in the previous two years, a fair bit of controversy [no such thing as bad publicity] and I'm still enjoying it so no thoughts about giving it a rest yet. Onwards and upwards. I'm still interested in representing FILOFAX if any FILOFAX honchoes are reading. And a holiday review would be welcome - Eilat? Cyprus? Seeing as I'm in the area already.

Plenty of room to grow. 

4
Mild  Weather
It's been very mild this week and positively warm on a couple of days - between 14 and 17 degrees C. It makes people have thoughts of spring and [probably falsely] think that the winter is almost over. So even though we may still get snow later, it's lovely to have this reprieve while it lasts.



I'm on the Reasons 2B Cheerful linky over at Mummy from the Heart.

Five Of The Best

Filofax: the ultimate Listography master.

Listography is back! Kate Takes 5 has resurrected for a one off to celebrate her 6th Blogiversary. My 6th is a still a few months away but I'm happy to help Kate celebrate. Listography was always one of my favourite linkies.

This week's list is five of your favourite blog posts.

It was hard making the selection. It took time as I got caught up in reading old posts I have loved. There were also some posts that could be deleted with the passage of time. Many photos and video clips have disappeared if they were copied from other sites. I've learned only to use my own photos.

I really ought to go back and edit this whole blog but with 766 posts, it's not something I could quickly do while waiting for the eggs to boil.

1. This was a fun post. A tongue in cheek guide to blogging. Everything you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask. Surprisingly, the whole competitive side of blogging and the stats has faded into irrelevance for me (as I know it has for many of us veteran bloggers). But there are a million new and more professional bloggers out there who will find this to be essential reading.
The Blogging Charter

2. Another of my favourite linkies for a while was The 100 Word Challenge. Each week we received a prompt from Julia's Place and we had to write 100 words on the subject. This one was re-writing a Christmas carol from the Woman's point of view.
Not So Silent Night

3. I just like this one. A bit of nostalgia.
The Sound of Music and Me

4. It had the makings of a best seller. It was so obvious. But unfortunately it had to be scrapped due to it being based on a pack of lies and fakery.
Why The Downton Diet Won't Work

5. I'm still hoping that Filofax will choose me to be a Filofax Ambassador or whatever people who get sent brand new Malden Filofaxes in soft aubergine leather are called. Meanwhile, this is a personal history of my lifelong love affair with Filofax.
Dear Filofax

Thanks for this Kate and Happy 6th Blogiversary!

Reasons 2B Cheerful - Growing Up

1
After sleeping in my bed for most of her life, DD finally slept in her own bed for two nights this week. It happened after a particularly restless night when I got very little sleep and ended up on the sofa because her bed was covered in lego. The next day I cleared up her room and put my foot down. There were some protests at first but we both got a great night's sleep. The next night there were no arguments.

I kind of missed her though so when she asked if she could sleep in my bed last night I said yes. I am probably my own worst enemy.

2
Today is the last day of school! Hooray! We have 3 weeks of summer school, till 1pm and only 5 days a week, ahead of us but at least no homework is involved. Well none that's not set by me and that I don't understand.

3
End of year report card. I won't know until DD comes home from school but I feel that we've made great strides this year. I can see the difference in self-confidence and independence from last September. For one thing, we've gone from me having to walk DD into the classroom every morning to just taking her across the road and waving her off as she joins the throng of children walking down the street to the school gates.

In the national tests in Hebrew and Maths she read the questions, answered them and finished the papers within the time. That could not have happened even back in January when I was called in to discuss how weak her language skills were (in Hebrew). The teacher told me then that DD wouldn't read one question or write one word without putting her hand up to check she was getting it right. And her maths which is good, was being dragged down by the word problems and not being able to read and understand the questions. It was heartbreaking.

However, with amazing help from the school, a "big sister" from the Big Brother/Sister programme, and some effort at home, we succeeded in breaking through the language barrier. I don't know yet if we caught up to end of 2nd Grade level as I've not seen the report card yet, but she's happy to go to school and she proudly shows me the ticks and smiley faces she gets in her notebooks. More and more she manages to finish her homework at school by working independently rather than wasting time so she can do it at home where I can help her. Night and day from where I'm standing, whatever the report says.

4
I wrote a controversial post about the EU Referendum. Huge backlash on facebook. Comments on the blog by some rather important figures in the blog world. I pulled up my big girl knickers and faced it all like a writer. Controversy is good (see, I've learned something from the Mail Online). Almost 1,000 unique views in 4 days. My Klout score went up to 51 - it's gone up by 8 points in the past 2 months. Now I'm just waiting to see if all this effort has got me back into the TOTS100 top 500. I can hardly bare the suspense.

I'm linking up with R2BC on Lakes Single Mum.