It’s hard to believe that after eight weeks since I made the decision to go, that the departure date is already here!  Tonight has been amazingly relaxed, despite the fact that I’m leaving first thing in the morning to the airport!

As we enjoyed snow that made it difficult for us to leave the house for the last few days (our street doesn’t get plowed), I was especially glad to be a person who doesn’t wait until the last minute to get things done, or it would have been very pressured for me.  Instead, since I had done almost all of my shopping for dd16 early in the week, I didn’t have to venture out until yesterday, and even then it was because several of the items I bought to take with me seem to have disappeared from the time I gave it to someone to put next to the suitcases and when I was ready to pack them.  🙄

I didn’t have any suitcases to pack in until Friday (thanks, T and Y!!) but once I did, I was able to complete most of my packing then.  I’m taking the maximum weight allowed per suitcase (50 lb each), and between the books and food for dd, some things for other people, and my clothing, I’m filling every bit of space I’m allotted!   And I’m really appreciative for my neighbor who lent me a luggage scale (thanks T and parents!) – this made packing so much easier – no stress of having to guess if my luggage would be declared overweight when I got there.  Having that mostly done really got the big stuff out of the way.

Tonight I worked on getting the mountain of laundry washed so everyone will have closets and drawers totally filled with clean clothes, giving three of the boys haircuts (ds3 gave himself a haircut couple of days ago, so I wanted to cut it all short so he wouldn’t look unevenly shorn – I was afraid dh might actually let him out in public looking like that – he’s more relaxed than I am in that way :)!), and taking care of the many small details.  I’m going to go do some quick exercise right after I post this, then shower and exercise again when I wake up in six hours (knowing I’ll be sitting so many hours, I want to preempt muscle stiffness or soreness as much as I can), then pack up the food in the freezer we have for dd right before we leave the house. 

I’ll take some food with me – baby carrots, grapefruit, and nuts.  I think that will be light but adequate, so that I won’t have to rely on the airplane food.  I wanted to make a crustless quiche so I could take a mini pan with me for lunch (during my 5 hour layover), but my kids told me that it seems I keep finding more and more to do, so I decided to do less as far as the food goes.  I’m also taking an empty water bottle, since the airplane air is so dry, and then I can ask the flight attendant to fill it for me without having to request multiple small plastic cups of water.

The entire family will be taking me to the airport.  It’s going to be an early morning for them, so we dressed the littles in their clothes so we can take them directly from bed to the van.  I decided to take a flight from the local airport to NJ, then to fly to Israel from there.  The ticket was more expensive, but I felt it was worth it – I didn’t want the family to have to spend seven hours in the car driving to and from the airport each time (once to take me, once to pick me up) – and I think what we would have spent in gas to drive is comparable to what I’m spending on the increased ticket price.  I should be arriving in Tel Aviv on Monday morning, then going from there to dd’s school near Haifa.

I’ll be blogging while I’m away to the best of my time limitations – my focus is on spending time with dd, and I don’t know what my computer access will be like. But I very much hope to be able to share with you about my trip as it’s happening!

Avivah