I am loving my medication increase!!

I really hope it is good for me. Until I go for blood work, which I should have done last week, I won't know and won't have to decrease it so I am procrastinating. High calcium levels can cause kidney failure, and calcium deposits in soft tissue and even the brain. It isn't something we can ignore too long, but for now I am doing just that. I feel so much better right now that I really want it to be okay.

Today I took my son for sedated dental work in the morning and the girls to their final dress fitting in the evening. This is a day that could not have happened on my lower doses of medication. I am tired but B"H functioning. I am not numb or tingly. I am okay and I am enjoying it.

Maybe Wednesday, once everyone is back in school things will slow down and I will make the time to take care of myself. For now I am enjoying the ability to take care of my kids and there is a lot of taking care needed to start a school year off well!

Great start!

My girls are all happy with their teachers and so am I. We got the teacher we asked for for ER (my youngest daughter). TF (my second daughter) got a teacher my oldest had and had a great year with. My oldest is happy with who she got as well, even though we have no experience with her.

All of the children in ER's class were given stickers with letters on them to spell their names. She only had one of one of the letters that she needed multiples of. She picked herself up, went up to the teacher and asked her for another one! She made me so so proud! She seems to have said goodbye to the socially anxious, overly shy child we used to see everywhere but at home.

We had a party tonight to celebrate a great first day of school. We had soda (a rare treat here), cookies and fancy popsicles. I am so relieved that today went well. Starting school off well, with good teachers, ironed shirts, and smiley faces, is so wonderful.

Last year I was barely out of isolation from radiation when school started. No one bought them new skirts, their books weren't covered and they certainly weren't ironed. It was B"H still a great year, but it didn't start out in a comfortable way. The year before my little boy was inpatient, starting the day before school started, for 11 weeks.

A school year starting with us all home, prepared and smiling is worthy of an even bigger party than we had.

The evenings are cooling off, but the kids are still enjoying the pool. It was hard getting them out for bedtime tonight. I told them that they could have leftover soda, from our party, with supper if they got out of the pool and into nightgowns expediently. I can't say they hopped to it, but they were ready by 7:30pm which had us on track for a reasonable bedtime. If it wasn't a school night I would have let them stay in until it was really dark.

Both of my older girls are vying for the opportunity to bring ER to her first full day of first grade tomorrow. They are going to make sure she knows where her classroom is (the school is a bit confusing with split floors, so I am happy she has this help), make sure she knows where the bathroom is and watch out for her on the playground. They are all so excited to be in school together.

I anticipate needing to keep them from leaving for school well before the gates are open. They are so happy and that means I am as well.

Are we ready?

School starts for the girls tomorrow!!

The two oldest start at 9:30am. I go with my third daughter at 3pm. It is going to be quite the day.

My oldest daughter's books need to be wrapped still, but she doesn't need them for the morning. She seems to be in no hurry. The younger two wanted them done and ready early. It is funny how different the personalities are!

My oldest just took last years school books out of her bag tonight. I was a bit shocked to see her doing it, since I assumed she had cleaned out her bag the last day of school when the other two cleaned out theirs. Two months later her bag was still waiting! I know she loved her teacher and had a great school year last year. It seems she is still trying to hold onto that. I understand. I am praying hard that the year to come is as successful for her and she is just as happy. Her teacher last year was phenomenal and understood her so well.

Last school year was an excellent one all around. It was one of those years that everyone grew physically and emotionally. I hope that this is another such year for all.

Manicure was nice but I think I am a massage lady.

I was pampered, poked, filed and even cut a little bit. I like the end result, pretty fingers and toes, and getting out was great. Coming home to a house full of sleeping children was better. My husband cleaned up with the kids and got them to sleep while I was out, which was a wonderful treat for me. My kids aren't hard to get to sleep, I love bedtime kisses, cuddles and singing them to sleep, but I needed the night off.

I didn't find the manicure or pedicure in of themselves relaxing. It was a bit painful and I don't need extra pain. Part of the "problem" if you want to call it that, was a not so comfortable chair. It was hard and metal. If I do this again in five years I think a spa is called for. Somewhere with jet foot baths, comfortable chairs and sterilized equipment.

I am picky, eh?

We had a great day. Friends came over (mine too, not just the kids') and played in the pool this morning. After they left we had a pizza and pickle picnic in the living room since it was too hot to have it outside.

We are squeezing as much fun as we can into the last couple days before school starts!

Busy busy

I am enjoying my medication increase while I can. I am less numb and twitchy than I have been in a long time. By all rights I should go and get my levels checked to make sure my calcium isn't too high, since the endo increased my Alpha D3 to a level that has caused problems in the past, but I have too much to do.

I found out today that my girls all start Sunday, not Wednesday. AC is the only one starting Wednesday in the end! So much for Sept 1st.

I have been covering books and found we don't have enough book wrapping paper. I got all of ER's books that we purchased covered but she will be getting more when she starts school, so we need more paper or she has to agree to clear plastic covers. I think clear plastic is better since you can see which book it is and it helps with organization, but pink wrapping paper with hearts is what she wants. I can't blame her.

We are enjoying the last days of the pool. My kids have had friends have been over playing daily. B"H summer is still in full swing, though the whine has started to creep in. I am happy school is starting. Two months of vacation is a long long time. It was great, but there is too much of just about anything.

Today I brought the girls for their final dress fittings. They are B"H beautiful dresses. They are personalized for each child and just perfect. The hemming should be done this week and we may have them before Shabbos. Even though they can't wear them until the wedding, having them hanging in the closet should be enough to make them feel like princesses.

The weather is finally cooling off a bit. I should think about turning off the ac and opening the windows. Tomorrow is only supposed to be in the mid 80s! After weeks of temperatures hovering around 100, this is huge.

Tomorrow I am treating myself to a manicure and pedicure. I haven't had either in five years. I need to get out and have a bit of space away from the house and the kids. An hour or so to myself will hopefully do a lot towards keeping me smiling at them and enjoying the last couple days of vacation. If I am able to enjoy it I will be in a much better place to be able to help them enjoy it as well.

Home stretch!

I took all three girls shopping. We exchanged ER's too small school skirts for ones that fit. We are done with back to school shopping!

I brought the girls to the paper goods and book store and we got them all wrapping paper (it is like gift wrap, but plastic coated for wrapping school books) that they like along with the last odds and ends they needed. We got more notebooks, calendars for all, pencils, pens, a hot glue gun, lots of tape and a stapler among other things. I think we are set for a while.

It is such a relief. We now have books, clothing and supplies done! I also fixed up a backpack for AC. I was given a free one, a medical conference extra, at one of my daughter's PT appointments years ago. I didn't want to use it as it was so we made it into a cute(r) backpack for preschool.

It wasn't easy to find boy friendly patches. Most of the ones I loved were butterflies, dolls or flowers. :) I finally found the bears and AC loves them too. They are fuzzy and cute. We ordered them Friday morning, they arrived today and I had them ironed on before bed time!

We have to cover books still but I am no longer worried about school starting. We are pretty close to ready! We have B"H done all of our excursions and the rest can be done from within the house.

Low key day

We had a quiet day today. I made waffles for supper. The kids played in the pool and made a watermelon into watermelon balls. The neighborhood children were in and out. I did a bit of laundry.

I am not feeling great, but it was a wonderful summer day none the less!

Restocked freezer, refreshed family, and a new project

B"H the food arrived a bit before Shabbos, both for our sake and for the sake of the man who was delivering it. His car had overheated but B"H he got it cooled off and going again. It has been insanely hot here (100-110*F) so I am not surprised his car wasn't happy.

The frozen food I had warmed up we ate, the food that I had removed from the freezer I replaced with the food he brought so we still have one emergency Shabbos worth of food stocked and the salads and extras (like the yummy vegi kuggle) were much appreciated.

Our grocery store closes at 2pm Friday so with the food generally being delivered at 4pm if it doesn't come I have to have a plan or we do without.

My oldest insists that the fact that Friday was hectic made Shabbos even more relaxed and sweeter. I like her attitude, though I did physically pay a price for the stress. I would prefer not to make Shabbos sweeter in the fashion!

Besides that, not a lot to update. B"H some toilet training success, though still far from perfect. We never gave up and it is paying off. School starts in just over a week so we are getting the last of the summer fun in. More school shopping planned for this week. My oldest is complaining that she can't hear with her right ear so we will be visiting the doctor tomorrow IY"H. We are saving water melon rinds to pickle them. I need to find a good recipe for that though. Lots of pool time planned and just some low key easy days.

B"H (Thank G-d) for a stocked freezer

It is an hour and a half until Shabbos and our food delivery didn't come.

I am not complaining, I am sure there was some sort of mixup or emergency.

I am just so glad that I can pull out a pan of cooked chicken, kuggel, cholent and cake out of the freezer. We have enough time for DH to put up some soup and peal some vegetables and all will be well.

I am not sure what we would have done without the food in the freezer, but HKBH takes care of us, so He would have worked things out a different way. Maybe the deliver just would have arrived.

All in all things are fine, though a bit hectic. The husband is home to help. The kids cleaned up most of their stuff (back to school is not the neatest time of year!) and it will all work out.

It has been a really busy week!

I am sorry my blogging has suffered, but the week has been a good one B"H! I am feeling relatively okay and there is just so much to get done.

Yesterday I bought the girls school skirts. I got the right sizes for the older two (and they are very happy with the styles I got as well) but I have to exchange ER's for eights. I bought sixes and they are too small. It is funny since she is a proportionate child and her size six uniform shirts are too big. They are the smallest uniform shirts they sell and she is going to have to roll the sleeve up twice to get them near the right length. Clothing sizes make little sense to me!!

Today the children all had dentist appointments in Yerushalayim at 9am. As it happens the endocrinologist my primary care doctor wanted me to see (my old one is out of ideas for the calcium levels and doesn't have appointments available to see her in person) was seeing patients in Yerushalayim today as well, on the same street even, right across the street from the dentist. Her only available appointment was at 4:45pm though.

We finished up with the dentist at 11am and went to the shuk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahane_Yehuda_Market which is always an experience. We bought fresh pitot, a bunch of my kids favorite fruits and vegetables (including corn on the cob! a rare treat here) an alarm clock for the girls room and some school supplies. We sat and ate in the shade, took lots of water breaks and dawdled as much as we could. By quarter of two everyone was overheated and complaining of sore feet. :) Even the stroller riders had had enough.

We headed over to the doctor's office, hoping that she would be there and available earlier and B"H her 2:30pm appointment was a bit late so I was put in in her place!! It was such an incredible relief.

The new endo is American, so language was easy. She was nice, sweet, thinks the world of my primary care doctor, and had some ideas about changing medications.

She was not happy with my TSH of 0.01. Considering my history and disease spread she wants my TSH undetectable. She wants me to add another 50mci of thyroid medication once a week.

I am not sure what I think of that. 0.01 is really low even in the post thyroid cancer world. It is low enough to put my at severely high risk for osteoporosis, which family history has already made most likely. There are other potential side effects of taking large doses of thyroid medication and I am not sure that all of them are less scary than a thyroid cancer recurrence.

She is adding more Alpha D3 to try to keep my calcium a bit higher, totally on board with IV calcium when ever I am symptomatic (though the first mention of IV calcium before she looked at my labs had her eyebrows up) and will be following up regularly.

Unlike my old endo, the new one did not give me her cell phone number in case of emergencies. Either she figures that my primary will continue taking care of emergencies like she has, or she just doesn't give out her number. Since she is an American doctor, either one could be the case. The Israeli doctors are much more free with their cell phone numbers.

We still have the skirts the exchange, ER's first grade math books to purchase, wrapping paper to buy (to wrap their books in, no brown paper bags to be found here!), books to wrap and TF's skirts to hem before school starts. We have made lots of progress though and IY"H will get to school prepared, healthy and happy!!

By the way, ER spoke with the dentist today, answered all of his questions, asked him questions and laughed at his joke. It is like a switch has flipped and she has turned into a typical six year old. B"H. It is wonderful to see her bloom!!

We had miracles here today

My sweet sensitive six year old daughter had her interview before starting first grade. The girls are given sets of words and asked which doesn't belong and why. She told the teacher all of the answers loudly and clearly.

She spent three years in school not talking. During that time she didn't speak to anyone outside of the house and only select non family members in the house.

Today she spoke, with no signs of anxiety, to the teacher, and then the principal and she even said a couple words in the seamstress's house when we were there later today.

There was no hang wringing, no tongue chewing. It was smooth and natural.

We made light of the situation before we went, telling her is would be okay she didn't talk, I would just keep her home all year and teach her how to cook. She so wanted to go, so it was just an anxiety relief for her.

B"H it all came together beautifully today and I think that now that she did it it will IY"H be easier for her to continue.

A good day.

B"H I did wake up feeling better today. It was a low key day as well.

AC started a new camp and the girls all went to a water and amusement park today. They had a blast and came home happy.

My DH had a rare day off and did tons of errands which made me feel better. He got the girls all their uniform shirts, picked up a package that has been waiting for weeks at the post office, picked up his pants from the tailor and went to the bank. It was a ton off my shoulders!

Tomorrow the girls need to go through their skirts so we know if anyone needs more navy blue school skirts.

I had a doctors appointment tonight. I wasn't able to get in locally so my appointment was across town. For me it makes little difference, just a couple more stops on the bus, but it meant that I saw my doctor upstairs from a mini mall. After my appointment I went downstairs, bought myself a couple very desperately needed skirts, the kids tubes for the pool (galgalei yam), and AC tofu and tofuti cuties as well as a container of little plastic animals to use as bathroom bribes since we are out of matchbox cars.

It was so much fun bringing home the treats. I love making my kids happy. Between the shirts, the pool floats and the plastic animals they were all pretty close to bouncing off the walls with joy. My husband was thrilled that I bought myself clothing. All in all, they made me feel like I brought home treasures. It was the perfect ending to a nice day.

Shabbos was wonderful B"H

but I am really numb again.

I made challah and kokosh cake (with some of the challah dough, not all that much extra work since I had to make challah anyway) Friday but I don't think I did more than I should have been able to do. I got IV Thursday night and was feeling pretty good Friday morning. By Friday evening I was numb and this evening I am even more numb and tingly.

I hope I wake up tomorrow feeling better.

The challah and kokosh cake were wonderful. The filling on the kokish cake was a new one and it worked well. It was 1.5 cups chocolate chips, 1/4 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup sugar and enough oil to make it all into a paste. I started with 3 Tbsp but had to drizzle in more.

I admit, I am a bit depressed over this. I should be feeling better. I want to feel better, but I also want to be able to live. Cooking for my family is part of living.

What a difference. :)

They kids have been enjoying themselves as I did my best to do as little as possible this week, hoping to avoid needing more IV calcium. It didn't work. My numbers kept on dropping and when I was down to the point where even sitting in my recliner I was having major problems with numbness and the muscle cramps were waking me up at night I made a doctor's appointment.

Based on symptoms, even before the blood test results came in, I got my IV and I am glad I did it. I feel so much better. Now I am trying to pick up the pieces and do the things I couldn't do all week.

The funny thing is, the nurse couldn't find a vein. After trying my good veins and not being successful in getting the IV started she called in the pediatrician to start my IV. While she was working on me a girl, probably 8-9 years old came in for IV for dehydration. The pediatrician assumed she was the one who the nurse needed help with starting the IV on, not great big grown up me. The nurse had started the dehydrated girl's IV first try.

This morning the kids spent in the pool and helped me sweep up all of the play dough crumbs. This afternoon I am baking. I have challah and chocolate kokish cake in the oven. I still have to make matzah balls for the soup, but my husband took care of peeling all of the vegetables and is now giving the kids baths.

The IV doesn't bring me to 100%, but it is such a huge difference. I know the risks and why they don't like to give it often (or at all out side of the hospital really) but it is such a blessing for me and makes such an improvement in my quality of life.

A glorious day to be a child

Yesterday was child paradise in my house. The children from the neighborhood were in and out to enjoy the fun and add to it.

The dining room table was full of play dough cakes and candies. They had two huge batches of home made play dough and enough play dough toys to go around. I love watching their creativity and listening to their conversations. We had wedding cakes, cars, books, trains, and candies made of bright blue and green play dough.

Outside the pool was full of plashing children all day long, until well past bedtime. I didn't ask anyone to get out of the pool until it was getting dark. They splashed and made waves over the top of the pool and it was great. By the end of the day the pool was visibly emptier and the children worn out and happy to head for bed.

Days like today

My children and playing and splashing in my pool with my neighbor's children. The sound of happy children fill the air, which helps, but I still want to cry.

I am so numb, so sore and so tired of living in my body. I am paying for the zoo and wedding on Monday in a way that no one else can understand or see. Well, there are some twitches that you could see if you watch carefully, but really they aren't even the tip of the iceberg. My blood tests yesterday showed my calcium was low enough that my doctor would have given my IV calcium but the results didn't come in until almost 7pm, when the office closes and this morning I just prayed that today would be better instead of going for blood work so I could get IV calcium.

Oh well. Tomorrow I will IY"H go for blood work. Tomorrow I will IY"H feel better.

Someone asked me why my sister in law didn't go back with my mother in law to help her out. She questioned my SIL staying out the last two weeks of her vacation. The question showed how little the lady understands the trauma of a cancer diagnosis. The trauma isn't only my mother in laws.

Yes, it is her body which will be going through treatment, but it is my sister in law who at fifteen is going to be doing her best to take over the household and keep it running. The weight of the world is soon to be on her shoulders and no one should be hastening that.

My father died 19 years ago, when I was just 16. I feel fiercely protective of my sister in law. I want to shelter her from what she is going to be facing as the only child still living at home. She has no one to to share the burden with on a day to day basis. As much as I know she will be great support and strength for my mother in law, for her sake I think that the longer she is here the better and so does my mother in law.

We had a really busy day today

I feel awful now, but it was worth it.

We took my mother, and the kids, to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo this morning. It wasn't too hot when we got there but we were all in agreement that it was too hot and we were ready to go home by the time we left. We saw the penguins being fed, lots of beautiful birds, monkeys, orangutans and some big kids. We walked through the lemur area, which is usually among our favorite places, but they were all hiding because of the heat. Next time hopefully it will be cooler so we can watch them too! The kids all knew to put away any food before going near the lemur's home. It was very cute.

We came home and I took a nap while my husband got the kids scrubbed and dressed in dressy clothing. This evening we went to my husband's cousin's wedding where we saw my mother in law for the last time before she flies back to the states. That was a bit emotional. Both the joy of the wedding and the worry and sadness about what my mother in law is facing was combined. Even though, God willing, all should be fine with my mother in law in the end, it is a long and hard path in front of her and we both know too well to pretend otherwise.

Sometimes going into something knowing how hard it will be does not make it easier.

Life is spinning

It is funny. I alternate between feeling like life is normal or maybe even okay and feeling like the world is spinning.

No, it wasn't my diagnosis, but it is. The lady I call Mommy is facing cancer again and chemo.

My house seems to be involved in the spin as well. It looks like a tornado hit. I guess 9-10 kids here all day, two days in a row, when I don't have the mental or physical ability to stay on top of them and even ask them to clean up would do that.

My mother in law's name, for davening (praying), is Sharone Devorah bas Gittel Dina.

I spent some time in the pool today, with the kids. It was great but totally exhausting. Tomorrow I am supposed to be going with my mother, my husband and my kids to the zoo. I am not sure how well that plan will work out. They may just have to go without me.

More on the same topic

What I talked about in my last post, about my mother in law's Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosis, is still weighing heavily on my mind.

This is my mother in law's second cancer diagnosis in six years. She was just given the all clear for her folicular thyroid cancer a bit ago and is down to yearly blood tests and ultrasounds for that. Two years ago she had open heart surgery and a valve repair. Her health has not been great and this is just too much.

She is a sweet lady. She works hard. She has 10 children and still has a 15 and 18 year old at home.

I lost my father when I was 16 to colon cancer.

I hate cancer.

I just can't make sense out of this.

I don't know what to do to support her from here.

She had the biopsy right before she left to come here and first was told by her ENT that it was fine. It turns out that that was a preliminary result she should never have heard about. We let out our breath and two days later the oncologist called with the Hodgkin's diagnosis. So not only is she starting chemo and possibly radiation, her month long visit to Israel to see her children and grandchildren ended up being a two week visit, with six kids, dozens of grandchildren, and several siblings to see and catch up with. It just wasn't enough time to see anyone much with a list so long.

This is just all so hard. I wish I could be there to hold her hand, sit with her and support her physically. She will be almost seven thousand miles away though. I wish I could convince myself that cancer ends well, but in my head even if you survive, in my experience it it is horrific.

I hate cancer. I hate cancer. I hate cancer. I hate cancer. I hate cancer.

Today was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

A family member I love dearly was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and from what I heard about the PET scan it sounds like it is stage IV. B"H it is a cancer that is fightable, and remission is possible even if it is a stage IV, but it will be a big fight.

Most of the family doesn't know yet. I don't think that anyone reading this knows her or my family, but I am not certain so I am not posting more than this.

My heart is broken though and I wish I knew what to do to support her from afar. I will be calling, I mailed a bag with hand cream and tissues and a journal already. I am praying and saying psalms. I just wish I could be there. I wish I could erase today and go back and get her different answers.

Party time!

Tonight was my brother in law's engagement party.

It was very very nice. I love seeing family, and having them all come to one local place made it really easy for me. We ate, we laughed, we celebrated and we enjoyed. The company was great and the food was good as well.

My children were well behaved, had fun, and made me proud.

I had had plans to go see a second hand couch this morning. When I called at 10:45am to confirm that they were going to be home, since I had arranged to leave my home at 11:15am, the couch had just been sold. Oh well!!

It made for a much quieter and more manageable day.

The kids spent the morning in the pool and I made playdough, both green and blue for them to play with once they got out (and cleared their stuff off of the table). I have a recipe that works without cooking, just combine it all in the mixer. It comes out great and kept them busy for hours.

Tomorrow is my son's last day of camp at his school. It is our last morning, until Sept 1st, waking him up to get him out the door before his van comes at 6:50am. That is one thing we will all appreciate a vacation from!

Today I also discovered that my largest pot is 8 quarts. I gave my brother in law my huge pot and thought I had another big one left but I obviously don't. My aunt needs a pot to make chicken soup in for 75 people and I really can't help her.

Speaking of helping, she isn't taking the cholent in the end. Someone offered to make fresh so I am still stuck with a significant portion of my freezer space filled with food that we will never eat.

I need to start a cholent gemach and advertise that I have it to give away.

Cholent, free to a good home. At least 10 liters available for the taking!!

Maye we will do just that.

Shoes

We went shoe shopping today for shoes for my brother in law's wedding.

We managed to purchase four pairs of children's shoes and leave with every single one of them happy in under two hours and two stores.

Miracles do happen.

My mother went swimming with two of my girls this morning, another miracle.

I feel lousy but have been worse. Considering how much we have done, that is quite amazing as well. I appreciate the fact that I am just numb and sore and exhausted but not at transfusion levels.

Tomorrow morning I am hoping to look at a used couch which I found on line and in the evening we have my brother in law's engagement party. It will be another busy day.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Today was, as was to be expected, a rough day. I was out of commission, my mother tired and the children bored and full of energy. I had discussed with the children that I wouldn't be doing anything with them today and not to ask me for anything and they were great. They were busy planning trips and shoe shopping for tomorrow but knew not to expect anything today.

I did manage to get myself outside to the pool though. It was a very hot day and the pool was amazingly refreshing. The children have an attention span and tolerance twice mine, but I was out there for quite a while myself. Being in water helps because floating there are no pressure point. Since pressure point cause the numbness to be painful it was perfect. The kids also really appreciate my presence. We had a lot of fun just being together, doing the same thing.

My mother and I had a bit of a rough day. She was not respecting my boundaries or listening to me. I got upset when she touched my answering machine again, less than a minute after I asked her not to and was playing my phone messages. Then she got upset at me for being upset. It made for a quite day with my mother only coming down (late, not when invited) for meals and otherwise reading and speaking on the phone in her room, avoiding us.

I am not sure how tomorrow will go. I want to go to AC's school, since it changed buildings a couple weeks ago. I have never seen the new building. His last day of camp is Thursday and Wednesday they are going on a train ride. They aren't even going to the school building Wednesday, just getting dropped off by the school van at the train station and picked up from the train station after the trip is over. That only leaves tomorrow, Tuesday.

As promised, here are a few pictures from yesterday. My camera battery was low, as usual, so there aren't very many. I need an unending supply of AA batteries since it seems I can only get ~10 pictures on each set. My mother in law took pictures as well, but I don't have copies yet.

This is my children in front of the Softer Stam Museum. They got to try their hand at being traditional scribes, meet a professional scribe, watch videos on the art, and there was even a trivia competition. It was a lot of fun.
This is my son navigating the cobblestone walkways of Tsfas with his sun hat in his hand.

This is my mother in law, my sister in law, and my children in the cheese factory. In front of them is a huge mound of salt that they coat the cheeses in to cure them before they get put on shelves to age.

I couldn't manage to get everyone in a picture and didn't have battery power to push too hard. It would have been nice though!!

We also went to the Safed Candle Factory and wandered through the artists colony. I wish we had had more time to see more and visit friends in the area, but we were all hot, tired and ready to go home by the time we left.

It was a great day.

B"H we had a wonderful time. The trip was long, one child got sick, but the views were beautiful. We saw the Kinneret on the way as well as beautiful landscapes and lots of interesting towns and people.

Tzfas was amazing.

I am going to sleep, but will try to post more (and maybe some pictures) tomorrow.

We are half way there!

Shabbos was again a very enjoyable day. I spent part of the day thinking about it, why is it so much easier than the rest of the week with my mother?

My conclusion was, she isn't trying to change my house or fix things all Shabbos. She is content just to be with us enjoying the quiet, the food and the company.

I think the problem is, I wish she felt that way the rest of the week. We may need help, but we don't need fixing, critique, or the stress that goes with wanting to make a difference in such a small amount of time.

I think the day tomorrow, once we get out of the house, should be good too. I am not sure how I will survive it physically, but emotionally being away should be good for our mother/daughter relationship.

Right now I am working on packing lists and food for tomorrow. Everyone else went to sleep and left the last of the Shabbos cleanup, as well as the packing and food for tomorrow on my head.

Maybe I will stay in the van and sleep while they tour.