It's STILL August

Well, the blog posts have been piling up in my head and I haven't had the time to write them down, leading to a severe case of blog-stipation, which has made me break the #1 rule of blogging, which is never allude to digestive problems when describing your writing process.

Here, in no particular order, are some of the topics On My Mind lately.

Eilat...wasn't so hot. In the temperature sense. I mean, don't get me wrong, it wasn't like you needed a light jacket at night or anything, but it didn't really feel that much hotter than Modiin. We were happy, and yet a bit disappointed, after all the hype. All in all, the trip was a success, plus we got to visit FOUR national parks on our way up and down, so we are well on our way to checking all of them off our list...

...in other vacation news, we also visited the beach, which became a very expensive trip when my prescripton sunglasses became a tribute to the wild seas of the Mediterranean; we went to Kastel, a place with terrific ruins where we played, of course, a game of Harry Potter; and we learned, through personal experience, that one really should not visit Gan Hashlosha, aka Sachna, during Eid-ul-Fitr.

... in case you were wondering, girls really are awesomer than boys. (I know most of you were not, in fact, wondering about this, since many of you either are awesome girls yourselves or are married to one and can testify to their supreme awesomeness.) But in case you needed confirmation: We (read: Ariella) were bemoaning yet another year with Annoying Boys in the class. Yaakov smiled smugly and said, "I'm lucky because I'm a boy and girls aren't annoying!"...

... another sign that I am getting old: I am losing my mem- ... hmmm? Oh, hi there!! Yes. Ahem. Anyway. So, the whole, "Why did I walk into this room again?" is become fairly routine. And I stride into the room with such purpose, such force! Only to stop short and have to retrace my steps, hoping something along the way will jog my memory as to why I was headed there in the first place. It is also becoming harder to play games with the children. Obviously, Memory is the hardest. The children regularly beat me. If I end up with 4 matches, that's good for me, and usually one of those was plain dumb luck. ("What??? That's not the other tree? Damn!") as my young opponent, waiting impatiently, gleefully swoops in and correctly matches the pair of trees. Even simple games like Go Fish are challenging. For example: I pick up a turtle (we have a new animal version from Saba and Sarah). Yay! I know that one of the children recently asked me for a turtle! But...which one was it? I can't remember! People! This should not be challenging! There are only two of them! ...

... in Harry Potter news: The children are banned from using the Unforgivable Curses on each other. Also, I told Ariella she is absolutely forbidden, under any circumstances, to use the phrase, "Bloody hell!" However, "Merlin's beard!" is completely acceptable.