Surgery Update

Just a very short post to say that my Dear Child had her surgery Thursday morning and came through it beautifully, Baruch Hashem [thank G-d].  She was nervous as this was her second surgery and she said she felt the anaesthesia line being inserted last time, but she was very brave.  I cuddled her and encouraged her to blow bubbles while they put the line in today (her hand had been pre-numbed by a topical) and she didn't seem to feel it this time.  Boy, they go out fast though.  One second she was giggling and telling the nurses about Dog and the next we were easing her down on the table as her eyes rolled back.

She's doing really well.  We gave her one dose of Advil when the freezing and painkillers they had given her wore off but she hasn't seemed to need any more.  I went out and spent more money than I should have on special soft foods for her (cottage cheese, ice cream, juice, soft fruits) but she can't eat regular food for a couple of days, just a very soft diet.  I'm going to make tuna quiche (one of her faves) for Shabbos lunch and we'll have fish fillets and mashed potatoes for Friday night.

I can't believe Purim starts when Shabbos ends!  At least today was an easy fast (the Fast of Esther gets pushed back to Thursday when Purim is Sunday because we don't fast on Shabbos unless Yom Kippur falls out then).  And Dear Child can say she fasted too!  Normally kids don't fast until the year they hit Bar or Bat Mitzvah but she had to fast from midnight on for the surgery.  Actually, she did have about a third of a glass of water through the afternoon, a sip or 2 at a time, but that's all.  She had a strawberry banana ice cream smoothie for dinner.  And she's looking forward to a visit from the tooth fairy tonight.  She got $5 each time previously when she lost a tooth and they extracted 4 teeth today (among other work).  Hubby asked her how much money she'd be getting and she said $20 right away!  Pretty good math skills for a 7 year old!

Racing to the Next Holiday

Yom Kippur is over and Sukkot is on the way! Okay, a fast day isn't generally very expensive but Rosh Hashana was and Sukkot will be too.



At least we have our very own top quality 8 x 10 foot sukkah. It cost us about $800 three years ago and should last us for at least 20 years. We've had at least 4 or 5 sukkahs over the years and none has lasted more than 5 years (some less, or had to have major parts replaced within a year or 2). This is the first nylon body on a metal frame kind though. The others have been wood based with plywood, 2 x 4s, lattice, clear tarps, etc. I'm sure I've spent more than $800 total on all the previous incarnations.



So we have the sukkah (and it comes with a bamboo mat skach or roof covering). We do need to buy longer 2 x 4s this year to go across the top. The ones we bought in the Okanagan a couple of years ago were just a few inches too short to fit in the holders that go on top and we've had to lay them creatively (on the diagonal, etc.) in order for them to hold the skach up but we've also had them crash down in a wind or while unrolling the skach and have a couple of serious chunks out of our big table as a result. At least we didn't have chunks out of anybody's head! This year we'll get 10' ones to lay across the 8' sides, so they'll extend nicely.



What else do we need? More wine! I still have some of the wine I bought before Rosh Hashana, but I think we need a couple more bottles. And food. We want to have another family dinner, since we're staying in town this year, and that means feeding 14 people again. Even if I go for veggie lasagne, it'll probably cost at least $30. It's a lot cheaper than brisket though! And at least a bottle of Crown Royal. Plus there are 4 holiday days (8 meals), not just one big family one. I have to have what to serve for those other meals too. Plus the everyday food needs to be warm, stick to your ribs type stuff as the weather is getting colder and we only eat in the sukkah (yes, even when it rains!).



If the weather is decent tomorrow, we'll try to put the sukkah up except for the skach. I don't know though; it rained today. It has to be fully up by Friday at the latest because the holiday starts Friday at sundown. Oh yes, and we need a table too as our usual one is sitting in my dining room in the Okanagan! My Eldest Daughter said there was one at her work we could probably borrow. We have to check that out. And chairs. Damn, I should have brought the folding chairs when I brought the sukkah. Again, we have 6 of them at the other house! And the electric heater is there too along with the outdoor timer. Sigh. I brought the little LED light string though...



I've ordered our Lulav and Etrog and it will be in sometime this week. I don't know what else I need, but I'm sure I've forgotten some other things!



It's late and I have to get up early to get people to work and school, so I'm just going to go. If you don't know what a sukkah is or about the holiday of Sukkot, check the labels for all the previous posts about Sukkot. I know I had links there. I'm just too brain-dead post fast to look them all up again right now and I really should be trying to get to sleep.

Post Fast

I'm not sure why I'm posting tonight. I feel very restless and can't concentrate. I'm busy at work and I'm the only one there, so I generally feel like I'm not getting anything done. Everything is just bothering me and I'm very distractible. Lucky I paid all those bills right away. In the mood I'm in right now I would never get around to it.

Part of it today is that it was a fast day, from around 2:40 am to 10:00 pm. I was up around 2 am and had my protein drink before the fast started. And I ate as soon as the fast was over. But my brain still feels kind of scrambled.

Maybe a good night's sleep will take care of things. I hope so.

The $2K Car Repair

The good news is we finally have the car back. The bad news is that it cost just over $2000.

We paid for half of it and charged the other half. It just kills me. But I don't know what we could have done differently in this case. Well, maybe we could have done the tie rod end a month or 6 weeks ago because that's when I first heard it. That was about $250 out of the bill. But the cooling system problem? There hadn't been any sign of the car overheating prior to a week ago when it just about redlined on a 15 minute drive.

The toughest thing is that we just can't function without a car. DC has to be taken to and picked up from school 5 days per week. I go back & forth to work, a total of 8 round trips to the office per week because of my split schedule. Hubby's been biking since his office moved but I'm still waiting to see how that works when the weather turns really nasty. That's not even counting groceries because I usually get them on the way home from work. And then there are our trips to our rural home. I've taken the Greyhound (the driver actually let me out across the highway from our back gate) but it's not even cheaper than the cost of gas when only one person goes and it would be crazy for us all to bus there.

I'm relieved that the car is fixed, but there's still an unresolved problem that will be at least another $600 and I'm worried that there will be more repairs in the future. The car is 7 years old, after all, and we put a lot of mileage on it.

Tomorrow night is Kol Nidre, the beginning of Yom Kippur and the fast ends Thursday night after dark. This is an intense day coming up and all I can pray is that what happened with the car will somehow turn out to be for the good.

I may or may not post tomorrow before sundown, but then won't be back until Thursday night. G'mar chatimah tova! May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year (in the Book of Life).

Let's Have an Upbeat Post

I could write lots of doom and gloom stuff right now. The world financial markets seem to be melting down and things aren't any too hot at my house right now either. The car won't be ready until tomorrow because they found something else wrong that has to do with the water pump (more money!) and they had to order the part. I've been doing some financial work in Excel and our money situation is worse than I'd thought. (Denial, it ain't just a river in Egypt....)

But I thought I'd like to write about something a little happier.

Let's talk about smoked turkey instead. I bought half a smoked turkey for Rosh Hashana dinner. It was literally cut down the middle so it included a wing, a leg and half a breast. Since it was already cooked all I had to do was heat it up in the oven and it fed 7 adults and 3 kids (along with half a salmon and a bunch of other food). My youngest son took a plate home as well.

The 3 of us (me, Hubby and DC) had grilled turkey sandwiches after the Fast of Gedaliah (the day after the 2nd day of Rosh Hashana) and they were great. I cut a round challah into slices, we put in heated smoked turkey (my hubby just sauteed it in a little olive oil) and used margarine on the outside of the bread. We grilled them in the frypan (the way you'd do a grilled cheese sandwich) and when they were toasty I opened them up and added mayo and jellied cranberry sauce. Yum! Hubby & I had 2 sandwiches each and Dear Child had one.

For Shabbos lunch I took the carcass, broke it to fit in the crockpot, added a whole onion, about 3 potatoes cut in chunks, 6 to 10 baby carrots, and a little rosemary. I covered the carcass with water and left it in the crockpot overnight on low. It was the best soup. Ever. DC had a 2nd bowl. She has never done that. With anything, especially anything containing meat. I had a 2nd bowl too.

The turkey wasn't cheap. It cost $46 but it gave us 17 servings of food, which works out to $2.71 per serving. I think that's pretty darn good!

It Was a Lovely Holiday

Everything went really well. The weather was gorgeous, sunny and warm enough that we didn't need jackets but not boiling hot.

Dinner the first night was great. The food was really good. I'm glad I did the salmon at the last minute. I put it in at 6 pm and took it out just before candlelighting and it was perfect! There was enough of everything but I don't have huge amounts of leftovers. A little smoked turkey and a little jellied cranberry sauce (mmm, turkey sandwiches for dinner tomorrow I think).

We took all 3 girls to synagogue both days, pushing a double stroller and a single one. (On Yom Tov the rules are similar to those of the Sabbath but you're allowed to cook on an existing flame and to carry, which includes pushing a stroller.) It took an hour and 20 minutes to get to synagogue (and about another 20 minutes to get to the rabbi's house for lunch and 2 hours to get home). That's a lot of walking!

You want to know the most amazing thing? I was just commenting to Abby (from i pick up pennies) the other day that my 3 1/2 year old granddaughter loves to go but can't go on Shabbat because she can't walk all that way. I mean, really, my 5 year old has only recently managed to walk both ways. Today my granddaughter insisted that she wanted to walk and she did! All the way to synagogue, all the way to the rabbi's house and (basically) all the way home! (We started home with her in the single stroller but she loudly insisted on getting out within about a block and walked the rest of the way.) I am, as the British say, gobsmacked!

I guess she can start coming with us on Shabbat now (though it'll still be a while for her little sister). Oh, and my daughter? She walked all the way home today but was happy to ride otherwise.

The baby graciously slept through most of the shofar service yesterday, allowing me to read all the prayers and take part fully. Today, not so much. I spent a lot of the service in another room with her, just dashing to hear each time they blew shofar. But it was still good.

Lunch both days at the rabbi's was as good as always (the food is always tremendous) and the girls enjoyed playing in the back yard on the trampoline and with a bunch of Little Tikes toys.

Tomorrow is a "short" fast, from 5:41 am to 7:20 pm but it's the easiest fast of the year. After 2 days of eating huge meals we could probably use the break. I'm going to eat (including having my protein drink) just before I go to sleep and then I'll be able to make it through okay until dinner. Sometimes I get up early to eat before it starts, but I'm pretty tired so I'll pass on that this time, especially as it's a regular day in all other respects. So we go to work and Dear Child goes to school (not that children fast anyway). The real fast doesn't come until next Thursday when it will be Yom Kippur.

Thinking About the Upcoming Holidays

I can't believe how fast time is flying. September is halfway through and Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year) is coming up very quickly. The High Holy Days are an interesting time in terms of work and time off. Because the Jewish calendar is lunar-based, the days that the holidays fall out on change from year to year. Some combinations seem to be more challenging than others, such as the years that see all the holidays falling out in conjunction with Shabbat, giving us 3 days in a row where no work can be done not once, not twice, but three times in a month. That isn't the case this year, but there are challenges any way it falls out.

This year Rosh Hashana begins just before sundown on Monday, September 29th and ends Wednesday night, October 1st. Yom Kippur is Thursday, October 9th. Sukkot is an 8 day holiday where the first two and last two days are full festivals and the intermediate days are semi-festivals. Its full holiday days are from Monday night, October 13th to Wednesday night, October 15th and from Monday night, October 20th to Wednesday night, October 22nd.

What does that mean? Well, for 2 out of 4 weeks we work Monday, are off Tuesday and Wednesday, then go back to work for Thursday and Friday. The first week should follow that pattern but the Monday is a Statutory Holiday (Candadian Thanksgiving) so we're off that day too. The one week that's different we're off on Thursday instead for a 25 hour fast (no eating or drinking).

It makes for a series of very fractured work weeks and school is also out over this time. For those of us who work for Jewish organizations the time off is not a problem. Our offices are closed and many of us get paid for religious holidays.

But it can be very difficult for Observant Jews who work in secular jobs. Some people take vacation days, others take days without pay and there are definitely employers who make it difficult to take one or 2 days off at a time (because they generally require people to take a week of vacation at a time). It's true that it's a human rights issue (in Canada it is forbidden to discriminate against someone for religious reasons) but it's often difficult to arrange things with employers who have never dealt with this before and who don't understand.

Then there are all the people who think the holidays are just that, days when you kick back and do nothing. Not so much. In addition to walking to and from services each day, there are 2 big meals per day on each holiday (as well as on Shabbat every week). Even when Yom Kippur rolls around there is a meal before the fast that's supposed to carry you through and a break-the-fast meal afterwards. That's a lot of cooking, especially if you have a big family or invite a lot of guests. So the food bills tend to go up at this time of the year even when our take-home pay may be temporarily lower. Since we don't turn lights off and on during holidays or the Sabbath or turn the stove top or oven off or on there is often a bit of an increase in the electric bill (which may or may not be countered by the fact that we don't run the dishwasher or laundry equipment and don't use the TV or computer).

Luckily for me, I get paid for religious holidays (4 hours pay per day) and don't have to use my vacation time for them (except for the intermediate days, if I choose to take them off). And in October I'm going to get 3 pay cheques! Right now I'm hoping that we'll spend the bulk of Sukkot in the Okanagan, which means taking either 2 or possibly 3 days off. We'll see. If I do take the days I already have the money for them sitting in an ING sub account ($50/day after taxes, based on a 4 hour day) and I have 10 days of vacation left.

Now I just have to start thinking about the food and planning when we're having family over, etc. Help!

Playland and the Fever Fairy

At this point, both DC and our son-in-law are running fevers and have been since sometime Friday. It didn't stop them (and DC's 2 little nieces) from having a great time at Playland on Friday. They rode pretty well every ride in the Kiddy area, although DC was put out by having to ride an orange carousel horse (oh, the pain).

She's decided that she no longer likes the Giant Slide because the bumps now scare her and she and her 3 year old niece rode the new kids roller coaster and were terrified. We even have the official Playland picture to prove it.

In the picture DC is holding on for dear life and looks very worried. Dear Granddaughter has what almost looks like a temper tantrum face and is clearly an unhappy camper. Hey, they were warned. They both insisted on going anyway. DC says maybe she'll try it again with Eldest Daughter. I think she should just leave it for a year or two.

However, I think the prize for Most Daring clearly goes to Son-in-Law for going to Playland by himself with 3 kids aged 5, 3 and 17 months!

But they came home and promptly spiked high temperatures. I'm still coughing and living in fear of getting the fever, especially when I have to work full time and have no real backup. Well, the first couple of days this week I have a volunteer, but then she's going away for several days. And my Executive Director is also going to be away. Unfortunately, shutting down the office for a couple of days isn't really an option, so I'm really hoping that I'm already as sick as I'm going to get.

It occurred to me the other day that I might be working a lot more hours for the rest of the month but my expenses are going to be higher too. I normally only bus 2 days per week. Now I have to take the bus every day. By my expert calculations that means I'll have 18 extra bus rides (at $1.90 per trip, using FareSavers). That's an inexcapable added expense of $34.20.

Then, there's food. I have to eat at work and we generally don't have leftovers I can take with me (maybe once a week). I already have to leave about a half hour earlier than usual because of taking the bus, so making lunch isn't awfully likely either. That means I'm going to be spending more money buying food at the cafe. I have to try to keep the costs down but I really don't want to be stuck with a slice of pizza every day ($2.99). I just have to be a little more frugal than I was on Friday. After not spending a penny on food on Thursday I had a special sandwich and a coffee on Friday and blew $9.00. I clearly can't do that every day.

Maybe I can aim for 1 day of leftovers, 1 day of making my lunch and 3 days of eating at the cafe (only once more than I usually do anyway). And if I make 1 of the cafe meals either pizza or soup and a corn muffin ($4.00) then I won't be spending a ton more than usual.

Okay, enough about food when I'm fasting! I need to get some sleep so that I can get up at 7 am and take care of the girls if Son-in-Law happens to be well enough to go to work in the morning.

Missing in Action?

Sorry about that. No post last night. Nothing this morning. And yesterday was It Won't Wait Wednesday. So, what happened? Well, this cold, work and taking care of little girls (who are also taking turns spiking temperatures) finally took its toll.

My co-worker left on vacation early (a vacation planned around the appearance of a new grandchild) and yesterday was, ahem, pretty interesting as I couldn't arrange to stay for the day on short notice. Luckily, we had a volunteer who was able to come in and handle the phones.

I have a cough that's moved into my chest, not a great thing when you consider that I have asthma (generally well controlled) and have a history of pneumonia, even though I had the pneumococcal shot several years ago. I don't think I'm as sick as Trent has been over at The Simple Dollar and I'm not at the point where I really need to go to the doctor. However, if I get worse I won't have time to go because I'm going to be stuck in the office (not a good thought).

I obviously need more sleep than usual though. I've been falling asleep early and sleeping until my alarm goes off, when I normally stay up late and wake up anywhere up to an hour before my alarm. This evening I was reading posts and fell asleep for at least an hour while Hubby and DC were at the park!

Probably the hardest thing is that Eldest Daughter is going away on business again from tomorrow until Sunday sometime. That means there will be no free time this weekend when I can try to rest and recuperate. Actually, I believe that she'll be away every weekend this month. On the other hand, she's staying home 3 days next week with the girls when I'm in the office. And then I think the trade shows are over for the next several months.

So, what about yesterday? Did I take care of any outstanding business? Well, the only thing I tried to do was update my passbook. I have a tendency to avoid doing that when I know I'm not doing too well, but that's come back to bite me in the past. So, I was a good girl and tried to update it after work yesterday but I ended up having to take the info on a printout. It seems that at night the passbook feature can't be accessed, but it will give you the same information on a strip of paper. Weird. It was just as well I did, because I ended up putting the couple of items I needed at the grocery store on my credit card so I wouldn't end up risking NSF charges.

Today, on my way home, I finally managed to get the passbook itself updated. I paid Fido their $79.99 this evening. And I transferred $300 from my ING emergency fund into my bank account. I don't like doing it. I didn't want to do it. But it was the right thing to do. It's counterproductive to have money sitting there while my bills are going unpaid or I'm sitting in overdraft. Things will be more normal after my next paycheque (which will have one week of the extra hours I'm working on it). They'll be much better after the following cheque in the first week of September, which will have 2 full time weeks on it. And I'll also be getting my retroactive CCTB payment of just over $700.

I'm proud of myself today for having brought leftovers for lunch instead of buying food at the cafe downstairs. I won't be able to do that tomorrow though because there was nothing left after dinner tonight. And we'll have to eat well tomorrow night and Shabbos lunch because the fast of Tisha B'Av starts when Shabbos ends.

After the Fast

Last night I said I'd be spending my day "updating my excel expense sheet, doing laundry and going through boxes". How did I do?

Well, it's amazing how much work I can do when I'm avoiding our financial situation. I did 4 loads of laundry and emptied 6 boxes. I got more books up on the shelves and actually folded the clean laundry and put it away (it often sits in the basket until half of it is too crumpled to be worn).

I didn't work straight through. I just worked a bit, then rested a bit, playing games on the computer. And then I did a little more, over and over again.

I finally decided I had to get going on entering what we've spent and to finish arranging the receipts in envelopes by month. So then I started looking for the little bag I've been keeping it all in (envelopes with receipts, loose receipts, bills, etc.) and guess what? That's right. I can't find the bag! I found a bunch more receipts that haven't been entered (I put a tick mark on them when I've done them and then they're supposed to go into the envelope for that month, so I can tell what's been entered) but no little yellow bag.

I'm not quite panicking yet but it's really bothering me. I'm sure I picked it up and put it away somewhere before Shabbat but my brain obviously wasn't "on" at the time so I don't remember where it was and it may have been somewhere really illogical.

I'm just going to call it quits for tonight and hope that something will come to me tomorrow, or that I'll just find it in the course of continuing to tidy things up. The fast went not too badly. I was hungry most of the day but I didn't end up with a migraine or fall asleep from low blood sugar or anything. We cooked up the remains of the BBQ chicken with onions and garlic and had it with salad when the fast ended.

I'm tired now though, so I'm going to go to bed a little early.

A Busy Fast Day

Sunday is a fast day. I don't mean it will go by quickly; I mean I can't eat or drink from roughly 3 AM to 10 PM. Believe me when I say it won't be going by quickly. This fast and the one 3 weeks from now are the toughest fasts of the year for me. Yom Kippur is not as bad, even though it's longer than this one.

I think it's because these two are during the hottest part of the summer, when it's harder to go without water and because they are fairly regular days in other respects. On Yom Kippur you spend the day praying with a million other people in shul. It keeps your mind and body occupied and everybody else around you is doing the same thing.

Sunday, on the other hand, I will be spending at home updating my excel expense sheet, doing laundry and going through boxes. Hubby is taking DC and our 3 year old granddaughter to an open house at the local fire hall (always fun) and then to his folks for a swim (because they've only been swimming 5 times in the past week, but they have new swim goggles to try out).

I didn't mention it on Friday, but I finally got my regular monthly Child Care Benefit cheque. It's for $56, so that's what I'll get every month for the next year. I still haven't received the retroactive cheque though and it was too late to call about it on Friday, so I'll have to wait until at least Monday for that. I really want to know what's happening because, judging from this year's payment, I should be getting somewhere around $600 (right about what I'd expected).

Well, I already had several pieces (okay, 5!) of cinnamon toast (the challah was really squished and the pieces were only about an inch high) with a big cup of decaf. I'm going to post this and go drink the protein drink I normally have for breakfast and then hit the hay. I'm not going to stay up right until 3 AM just so I can eat and drink up until the last possible second. The extra hour isn't going to kill me.