The older boys finished off their summer break last week with a trip to Jerusalem for Shabbos to celebrate the bris of our newest grandson, the first grandchild to be named after my father-in-law. My husband and I stayed home for Shabbos with the four younger kids, and together with my oldest daughter and her family who are staying with us for a while after her birth, we celebrated the twins’ sixth birthday. Shabbos was also the twelfth anniversary of our family arriving in Israel. And August is the month I started this blog, so this month marks seventeen years that I’ve been sharing here with you!

Ds15 and ds14 are now both learning full-time in a local yeshiva, which means I still see them but they’re not around much. That also means that after twenty two years, this is officially the first year we’re not homeschooling any children. With the younger kids still home for summer vacation and being so busy, I’m not feeling that yet, but it will hit me at some point.

I finally was able to register dd6 for kindergarten yesterday; it’s a multi-age local kindergarten a ten minute walk from our home. She’ll be starting on September 1, as will ds11 and ds6.5. I’m pleased with the school options for all of them.

As of yesterday, the new kindergarten that ds6 is supposed to attend is not coming together quickly, to say the least. I asked those responsible at the city council to tell me honestly if it’s likely they’ll open on time since to me it doesn’t seem like that will happen, and I’d like to prepare for what I’ll do if the school isn’t ready. They told me they don’t want to think about that possibility and that it has to work out.

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In the midst of all this busyness, I’m trying to take quiet time to assess where I am in my life and what I would like to move towards in the year to come. I’m using a format that I used in 2019, and when I looked back at that journal of my goals for the upcoming 3 -5 years, it’s amazing to see that I reached almost every single one.

As has been said, we overestimate what we can accomplish in one year, and underestimate what we can do in ten years.

I’m now considering what my next goals will be. When I set goals, I do so in different categories: health, spirituality, financial, personal fulfillment. Or in other words, BE/DO/HAVE – what do I want to be, do and have?

It’s so easy to overwhelm oneself by taking on too much, so I find it more effective to take on small bite sized steps. For example, in my category of spirituality, I’m adding on saying the 13 Principles of Faith (Ani Maamins) daily.

I decided to do this after hearing the interview of parents who lost a son in the Meron tragedy. As I shared at the time, three of my sons were there that night, arriving on the scene right afterwards before any official announcements had been made about what occurred. These parents started the Ani Maamin initiative, and since strengthening my faith is an ongoing effort, this seemed like a good choice for me.

This takes a very short time so it’s not a big commitment time-wise, but I try to stick with what I take on so I have to take on something small enough to integrate long term.

I’ve clarified my goals in a couple of areas, but there are other things I’m still thinking about. Are there actions I want to do, or feel like I should do them? Are there goals I’m afraid to set because I don’t know if I’ll be able to stick to my commitment, and I don’t want to fail? Am I not setting certain goals because they’re too big and intimidating? Is there a long term goal that I can break into smaller pieces to make it doable, rather than not think about it at all?

That will take more time working it through; I’m trying to finish this in the next week so that I can be ready to begin in all areas by Rosh Hashana. I’d love to do a vision board again – I’m grateful to the person who visited and brought a stack of magazines a couple of years ago, and made it possible for me to do a vision board workshop with the teen girls I was working with, as well as with all of my family members. I transferred some of the pictures from my last vision board over a year ago and pasted them into my current planner. This planner is about to end and it would be nice to refresh the pictures rather than transfer them a second time into my new planner.

There are many ways to work through these life goal questions, but however you do it, it’s valuable to take time to set some personal goals. If you set goals, you might not reach them but you’ll still come out further ahead than if you don’t set any goals at all. As the saying goes, “Reach for the moon – even if you fall short, you’ll land among stars”.

Avivah