A few weeks ago, one of my children knocked my laptop off the table.  After I picked it up, the screen was making a rattling sound but it seemed to be working fine despite the sound.

Last night, my screen suddenly stopped working.  I assume that whatever got loose at that time finally disconnected.  And despite the inconvenience of not having a working computer, I wasn’t too sorry about that since I appreciate not having the mental push/pull of thinking of things online that I need to do.

I had a nice productive day today, from morning to night.  Sunday is always a busier day since there’s extra cleanup from Shabbos; in addition to the kitchen cleanup I took in four loads of dry clothes from the drying rack and put them away, washed and hung two more loads, cleaned the boys’ room together with them, ate breakfast, told the kids the parsha for the week at breakfast, davened with them, spent time with visiting family members from the US, went to the park with the kids and even had time for a long nap and a long session practicing my flute in addition to other things.

It was nice to feel productive and relaxed because last week I felt incredibly unproductive.  I started my week with a trip to Jerusalem, which was an entire day trip.  Then I spent the next day recuperating from the exhaustion of my trip. Then Tuesday, I spent another entire day in Jerusalem (left at 6 am, back at 9:40 pm), then Weds. recuperating (I get super nauseous and headachy from traveling, that’s why I need a day to get back to myself), then Thursday busy with shopping and Shabbos preparations.  We enjoyed having three visiting family members in addition to three of our older kids home for Shabbos.

And now I’m preparing to be in the Jerusalem area again, this time for the next two days.  This trip is for the wedding of a close friend’s daughter.  Since there aren’t buses running after the wedding back to Karmiel, I’ll be staying overnight in Jerusalem, then hopefully having time to visit with my friend before heading back home.  I’ll leave midday Monday and will be back Tuesday afternoon.

I don’t enjoy the traveling or leaving the kids for so long, but I’m glad tomorrow’s trip is for a happy occasion.  And I’m also really glad to have gotten things in order today, spent time with everyone and just generally feel settled – it makes it easier to leave when I feel like I’ve been on top of things.

Avivah