For some things I don't do well with surprises and for the most part, don't really like spontaneity. Like meals. And having guests. I need to have it planned, I need to HAVE a plan.

Lately I've started shopping for Shabbat on Wednesday or even Tuesday and starting my cooking on Thursday. It's been making Fridays a lot more enjoyable.

This Thursday my father in law (FIL) will be arriving for a week. We've invited the Rabbi of our shul and his family to join us for the Friday night meal (his wife is a biologist) and we may have a new family join us as well. They just arrived this week and they have 18 and 20 year old daughters. Perfect for the girls.

In honor of my FIL being with us and as a Chanukat haBayit* we will also be hosting an Oneg Shabbat Friday night (which means members of the community are welcome to come by after dinner for cake and mixed nuts and maybe some booze).

So of course I've got a list of the cakes that will be made (and most will make multiple cakes so I'll be able to freeze).

Cinnamon-walnut babka (a crumb topped yeast cake), craisin and almond mandelbroit and a cherry topped yeast cake.

I'm still working on the actual menus.

Friday night we'll start with vegetable-kubbeh soup. The main dish will be felafel-crusted chicken, spinach kugel, sweet potatoes with sweet chili sauce and I'm not sure what else. Oh, regular chicken nuggets for the smaller kids.

Shabbat lunch will be a turkey version of a crock pot BBQ pulled pork recipe I found, home made cole slaw and probably a macaroni salad. Not sure what else. Suggestions of what traditional sides for pulled pork would be appreciated.

* The short version is a Chanukat haBayit is a dedication of the house. Traditionally it is done upon moving into a new home and there is a disagreement about whether it means only a house you own or also one you're renting. And since we've never done a Chanukat haBayit and haven't had much luck with the previous houses we've lived in, we figure we should try it. The whole thing basically involves serving food of some sort and saying several passages of Psalms.

Last year we were supposed to go to the US on July 15th for almost 6 weeks of a summer vacation.

A month before we were due to fly, I got a call from the landlord, telling us they wanted us out by the middle of August and they didn't want to renew our lease. Well, technically we didn't HAVE a lease, but they didn't want to rent to us.

Needless to say, we were all upset. The landlords refused to rent to us until November, even though we were willing to pay the higher price they were asking (we soon found out they were under pressure from certain Yishuv members to get us out of the Yishuv for reasons still unknown to us).

We had to cancel our vacation and instead of simply packing for a trip abroad, I now had to pack up an entire house. And find a place to live.

We were all devastated about the canceled trip and I grew depressed. And I knew that as July 15th arrived, my depression would worsen. So would my stress levels.

While all this was going on, my husband and I decided that after our move, we would get back on the fertility treatment wagon and go through the process of trying for another child. See, I suffer from PCOS and our son was the result of a year of fertility treatments. Of getting up at the butt-crack of dawn to head in to Jerusalem twice a week for uncomfortable ultrasounds of my uterus and ovaries and blood tests to check hormone levels. Of injecting myself with hormones until I was black and blue. Of having to arrange to be in Jerusalem overnight for the IUI because you only have an hour window of opportunity from the ah.. 'collection' to when the sperm needs to be at the clinic for cleaning. And the dreaded 2 week wait until you can take a pregnancy blood test. The only silver lining was that at 9 months postpartum, despite nursing full time, I had gotten my period on my own for the first time in 5 years (sorry if this is TMI). And I'd been fairly regular, although I had no way of knowing if I was ovulating.

So with the move and canceling a much needed vacation and weaning a child who had no interest in weaning (breast feeding can affect a woman's fertility) and the logistics of treatments with a toddler, I was severely stressed and depressed. And I knew that when July 15th came around, at some point in the day, I'd find myself in the shower, crying.

On the evening of July 13th, I mentioned to my husband that I 'was late', but since my cycles were always erratic, I wasn't particularly worried or excited. He said he'd go to the pharmacy the next day and get a home pregnancy test. I smiled and nodded and decided to humor him. See, one way many of us cope with infertility is at some point we accept the fact that if we want to have children, we need the extra help of medical professionals. The idea of getting pregnant 'on our own' stops entering our minds because the hope and then disappointment is often too much to bear.

It is recommended to use 'first morning pee' for these tests so I figured July 15th would be the day I find out that once again, I'm simply late.

At 3 a.m. The 14 month old woke to nurse and afterwards, since I needed the bathroom, I took the test. If I had known it would be positive, I would have waited and I would at least have gotten 3 or so more hours of sleep. I refused to believe the plus sign. I couldn't wrap my head around the plus sign. In a daze, I woke my husband up (sort of) and told him I took the test and it was positive. He mumbled something about being good news and rolled over and went back to bed. At first I wasn't sure if he'd heard me. I simply got back into bed and tried to sleep and tried to process the news and failed miserably at both.

Needless to say, I canceled the appointment with the fertility specialist and made an appointment with the OB.

And at some point on July 15th, I found myself in the shower crying. In shocked happiness.

Here we are to this summer. In addition to a yummy toddler, I'm nursing a delicious almost 4 month old. Once again we've had to cancel our summer plans to go to the US because the landlord's family is miserable where they are and they're moving back. So after a few minutes of panic, I went online and after a harried 2 weeks search, we signed a TWO YEAR lease on a pretty little row house duplex. For less than what we're paying now. Ironically, we're moving on July 15th this year.

I wonder what August 4th will bring this year... You can be sure I'll be playing the lotto that day.

Wish us luck on signing a 2 year lease on Saturday night.

But our trip this summer is canceled because it's just too expensive to move and go abroad.

That's it. No more planning trips. In the future I'll call the travel agent the day before we want to go....

Just saw a magnificent apartment.

I would have signed a lease then and there.

Except it's the top floor of an 8 story building and the elevator doesn't have a Shabbat feature on it!

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(A Shabbat feature is with a special switch the elevator automatically stops for a minute on each floor with the doors open, 2 minutes for the main floor. Yes, it means the ride takes longer but it sure as hell beats walking up and down 8 stories with 2 small kids, a carriage and whatever they need, play with, etc....)

(Further ETA: Orthodox Jews don't use electricity on the Sabbath, even pushing buttons. So the elevator's Sabbath setting is it stops automatically on each floor and the doors open and shut automatically. It stays on each floor for a minute to give people getting on a chance to get on.)

Beans are in a bowl of water for an overnight soak and I'll cook them tomorrow. Eventually they will grow up to become a Mexican casserole.

The veggie quiche will be defrosted tomorrow - I actually made that on Friday and froze it.

The cake is made, I just need to cut it up and then frost it.

EN seems to have started his 3 month growth spurt - he spent the better part of today asleep and even when he nursed, he did it semi-consciously. He didn't nurse more frequently but he did nurse longer at each time.

The ENT gave me paperwork for EN to have his tongue-tie taken care of in the hospital. In hindsight I should have taken the paperwork to administration right then but I really needed to get home. I'll get the paperwork processed locally.

I saw an apartment today and it was a disaster.

Friday afternoon we see another place and I have to call another 2 people back tomorrow.

I'm going to collapse now. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day and I'm alone with the boys.... yeesh.

Just got a call from the landlord.

They're moving back in August.

When we rented the place they told us they were planning on being in the city for 2, maybe even 3 years.

Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered to unpack.

Otherwise I wouldn't have planned a freaking vacation for August.

I refuse to panic (can't say the tears will stay away though).

I have 7 listing for apartments/houses available, all for less (and many at least 700NIS/month less) and as soon as Zach gets home and we eat dinner I will start making calls.

I have no idea what this means for our trip.

I DO know the girls' planned daycamp for July is toast and I'm really pissed about that.

When I give people specific instruction, it not (usually) because I think they're stupid, it's just that I want it done a specific way.

The woman I hired to clean the house managed to sweep the salon area and kitchen. For the rest of the 4 hours she worked, she was sorting through the junk that had been left.

Now when I hired her, my instructions were "shovel everything into garbage bags and dump it all".

It took me half an hour to clean out the crap in Zach's office, the bathroom and what little remained in the guest room.

It took Zach and a neighbor less than 2 hours to sweep the garbage left in the 4 upstairs bedrooms, bathroom and hallway, vacuum AND kill a honking huge scorpion. And about 15 minutes to hall a huge pile of garbage bags to the dumpster.

Why? Because we didn't stop and sort.

Oh, and her son, the kid we hired to paint and spackle, one of the boys that that girls hang out with? Didn't do a damn thing. Now the day after we moved out, he called me and said he couldn't find the paintbrushes and spackling stuff. I told him to call Zach.

That was the last I heard from him and I foolishly assumed he'd done the job.

Yeah, well, he didn't.

So basically what we're going to do now is arrange a barter with the owners of the house. We'll leave the counter tops and cupboards in exchange for them excusing the last 2 months' rent we owe them and hiring someone on their own to paint and spackle. They'll totally come out ahead, but frankly, we just don't have the money and removing the counter tops is just too risky.

I have to go to the old house and finish cleaning.

The woman I supposedly hired called me today at 2:30 to tell me the house was locked. There was no key left anywhere.

Now it's true that last night I gave the key to the owner, but I also told him that someone was coming to clean the house today.

And he didn't answer his phone until he called about half an hour ago, chewing me out about the condition of the house. And it's my fault for not getting in touch with him earlier because the key is on the settlement... just not at the house.

So that's it. I'm going to do what I should have done when we had the damn car and take care of things myself.

Can you tell that I am extremely pissed?

I have to call a place in PT tomorrow and let them know whether Zach can get to a 5-6 p.m. look-see.

I've got 1 place in Ariel and another in PT to call on Friday to set up a look-see then.

I need to call a tenant in Ariel about seeing the apartment hopefully on Friday.

A real estate agent is going to call me back if the signing he's got set up falls through. I also asked him to let me know if anything else comes along.

And then there's this guy who wants an entire year's worth of rent in advance. If I had 50400NIS I'd put a down payment on a place in Ariel and to hell with renting. Is he nuts?!?!?

Dear God,

I'm not asking for an easy life. I'm not asking to become a millionaire even though I occasionally play the lottery. I'd just like a break. Please. Thank You.


So there's now a possibility the dream duplex will be a no-go. He wants city rent prices and city payment schedules... meaning quarterly deposits instead of monthly.

And for this first quarter, there's just no way we can manage. Especially with having to pay movers and needing to buy a stove top and oven (if we move to this place).

Good thing I didn't delete the other leads I found. I'm most likely going to have to make some calls later.