This morning I realized it was already Thursday which means it’s been almost a week since I’ve written anything here!

I’ve been busy with a few things.  Firstly I traveled to Jerusalem on Monday to speak about homeschooling to a lovely group of women that evening.  We met in a suburb of Jerusalem, so it wasn’t a very central location and it was amazing to see women coming from so far out of their way to attend – Bnei Brak, Kiryat Sefer, Efrat, Ramat Beit Shemesh, Kochav Yaakov, and of course from Jerusalem and Telzstone.  I enjoyed it very much.   I recorded the talk and this morning asked dh if he can help me edit it into sections (with two speakers and a long Q and A session it’s really long) so I can post it here for those of you who are interested to listen to.  Hoping to get to that tonight.  Hoping!

I stayed overnight in Telzstone together with the other mom who spoke, and we shared a one room guest apartment together.  That was so fun – we’ve known each other for at least five years when we first met in person (had ‘known’ each other online before then)and it was a mom’s sleepover with us staying up late to talk.  Really, really nice.

In the meantime, dh was holding down the fort at home.  Just a few days before ds6 asked me when we would be able to go to the science center in Haifa again; we had gone in September when there was free admission for science night and everyone had a wonderful time.   I told him we’d try to go in the fall again when it’s science night.  Two days after his question I learned that there would be free admission to museums around the country on Monday and made plans to take the kids.  Then the opportunity to speak for the homeschooling gathering came up and that meant traveling on Monday so dh took the kids instead.  They literally had a field day!

I’ve also been busy this week with a number of emails from people interested in making aliyah.  It’s the time of year for pilot trips and planned aliyah dates are coming close, so people are in the deciding stage about where in the country they are going to move to.  I’ve been glad to have been able to help out but I have a limited amount of online time, so responding to the questions has cut into my blogging time.  People are reading my older posts on Karmiel trying to get a sense what it’s like living here and since I’ve written those, things have continued to evolve here so there are aspects that need to be updated.  I’m getting further and further backed up on posts and I want to say that I’m going to write about some of the issues that are coming up in emails on a regular basis since it’s important, but….

I’ve had some important parenting conversations this week that I also want to share with you, but once again my time constraints are making it unlikely I’m going to be able to get around to sharing that with you.  I’ve never had the typical blogger’s issue of not having anything to write about;  my problem is the opposite!  So many topics, so little time…..

I met with a homeopath last week and in addition to beginning homeopathic treatment  with her and getting a homeopathic gel to use on my face (now added to my daily rotation of three other creams!), she gifted me with some milk kefir grains.  Yesterday, for the first time since leaving America in August 2011, I started a batch of kefir!  I’m telling you, the little things in life are so exciting!  It should be ready to drink today.

While I’m talking about nutritional advances in my life…I made two four gallon batches of kimchi right before my accident seven weeks ago which was great because that was enough to last until now.  It’s time for me to get another batch started since I don’t want to run out!  (I try to make four gallons at a time since that works well for our family size – it requires a serious time commitment on my part since I don’t have a food processor.)

My favorite part of kimchi is the juice so last time I adapted my kimchi making to using lots of liquid so I end up with at least two or three gallons of probiotic juice to drink!  If it didn’t have such a cleansing effect (and if I could make enough to keep up with myself) I’d drink it all day long.  My kids started asking for it, too.  When I give them cod liver oil it’s followed by a kiddie vitamin C.  One day ds8 asked if he could have some kimchi to clear the cod liver oil flavor from his mouth and had his vitamin C afterwards.  Then naturally his brothers also wanted to do the same.  🙂

Well, that’s where I’ve been and what I’ve been busy with this week!

Avivah