The Menu

Well, we're managing all right without much of a kitchen. Here's what's in store for this shabbos:

challah
spinach kugel
green salad
roasted potatoes
brisket
roasted zucchini
chocolate tofu ice "cream"
meringues

And for lunch...

French dip lamb sandwiches

The house is pretty empty now. The main problem: with nothing to absorb sound, everything is quite LOUD now. With all the wood floors it just echoes (and echoes and echoes). I don't want to spend much time at home next week. It's just not very pleasant when they're a bit rambunctious. On the other hand, eating on disposables is surprisingly quiet. Mealtimes are very hush, hush. I miss sitting around a table, but the brick fireplace has made an okay substitute for the kids.

The truck is packed and is being picked up in the morning. Off goes our stuff! We'll mail a few boxes in a week, but otherwise we're done. No washing machine, so I've been doing laundry every night in the sink. Not too bad. We still have the drier here. We sent the washing machine ahead and will use the landlord's drier. Our drier we'll just sell. It's been nice to have a way to do laundry semi-efficiently.

Our food supply is dwindling at just the right rate. I hadn't been stocking up like I usually would since we kept hoping to move. We haven't been buying many groceries; just using up what we have around. We're using it all up pretty well. I did stop and get kosher nori and wasabi in case that's not easy to find in Savannah; enough for four meals. Yum. And four boxes of Jo Jos from Trader Joe's. And bringing some Tillamook cheddar with us. We have a 2/$5 coupon somewhere, so hopefully we'll find that soon and lay in a mini-supply. Best cheddar ever; way better than most of the readily-available kosher brands which are mostly just so-so. I sure miss the $2.50/lb kosher cheddar Costco used to carry. Alas. All that plus my Bob grains/beans are the only food supplies I'm bringing. Looking forward to meeting new brands. And we all hope the cottage cheese there is good. We're very much into our cottage cheese around here! I will definitely miss Trader Joe's and Bob's. Small price, however!

The coming week will mostly be about visiting with friends, cleaning up this house, and getting all the repairs scheduled, windows cleaned, carpets steamed, and a final cleaning scheduled after we leave. Lots of little arrangements. Then we'll spend our last shabbos here at the home of very good friends. I can't believe this is the last shabbos in our house! And two weeks from now we'll be in an entirely different city. Really strange to think about it. It still doesn't feel quite real. The move so far has really not felt stressful. Tiring, yes, but there's been a lot to do! We're just definitely doing the right thing for us.

Eli is the only one who has expressed any sorrow about leaving, and only once did he say something. Yesterday he said, "Mama, I don't want to get a new house." I reassured him that we would all miss this house and that we have loved living here for all of his life, and that his new house would have a really big back yard. "But I want a tiny yard," he said. I got a brief, slightly sorrowful snuggle, then he snapped back and roared back into his Eli antics. Not another word about it since. Mostly the kids have expressed gusto for the adventure ahead, but I know the change will be stressful even if it's a really good change.

I just hope the plane ride goes smoothly. The only one I'm really worried about is Avi. I have a feeling we'll be jogging up and down the aisles with him the whole time. He does NOT like to sit still. We have to get up really early on Sunday morning to fly out, so I'm hoping he'll sleep. We'll bring his carseat, and hopefully he'll take a nice long nap in a familiar place.

Well, getting a little ahead of myself. First, the rest of shabbos (I hope!). Good shabbos to all!