Catching up

A Couple Updates:

1. DB is home – has been for a week – is feeling much better. (B”H BI”H) Had his follow-up doctor’s appointment today. Doctor said he could go back to the army next Sunday. DB went for a short run tonight with a friend. Still needs to work up his lungs…
2. I’m sick. Started with a sore throat and is now all about sinus congestion and pressure. My head feels like a lead weight and my nose is sore from all the blowing. Yes I am complaining. No one else will listen to me!!
3. Opening Night for my stage debut is in 3 weeks! WIT (Women in Theater) in Modiin is performing the Broadway musical, “Into the Woods” and I am playing the Wolf. I get to dance and sing and howl and snore and burp. Then I get killed off and don’t appear again until the finale. Just enough stage time for me!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivVTPr8k9ok
Check out the link to get a taste for my role – although I’m not that good!!

4. MB is stressed out by school. Tests and decisions that have to be made for next year. She is making very good money by babysitting and tutoring. She has her heart set on being a counselor at Camp Moshava this summer. She’ll have to pay for her own ticket. The down side of Ari not traveling anymore is we don’t have the frequent flyer points.
5. NED is also pretty stressed out by school. My feeling with both the girls is: it’s about time! They barely ever do any work; they don’t have any idea what it means to be stressed by schoolwork. Let them feel the stress of having to work hard for school. I’m supportive but not very sympathetic!
6. ELY – bless her little soul, keeps the love going in the house. She is especially happy these days to have her Dovie around. They are very sweet together – loving both verbally and physically. She has been chronically complaining about her stomach, though. We are trying to decipher what is real and what are nerves.
7. I have given two presentations on Expressive Therapies in the last week. One at the International NEFESH conference – for orthodox mental health professionals and one for a group of retired mental health professionals. Both presentations I prepared an hour before I gave them and decided to wing it. Both presentations were easy to give and well received. I was not nervous for either of them and walked away knowing the participants had learned something. I’m getting better!
8. I’ve been thinking a lot about family relationships and relationships in general. Who we “have” to keep relationships with and who we don’t. What constitutes a relationship we have to try to keep up and one we want to keep up? Expectations, I am learning, have a lot to do with this. And, I am learning, expectations lead to a lot of disappointment. There are those I want to be in touch with, but they can’t or don’t seem to want to. And then there are those I feel I must be in touch with and I really don’t care to.
9. Money is stressful – using it, not having it, and wishing I had more. Thinking about it all the time. When to spend it and when not. Ari not wanting the kids to feel that we don’t have. My not wanting the kids to think they can have whatever, whenever.
10. Managing my house without a cleaning person. How much do I want to save the money and do it myself and how much of me resents having to.
11. Feeling pressure to be working more.