Aronot...closets. Houses in Israel are notoriously built without closets. This means that if you are the first resident in NEW construction, as we are, you need to go and shop for Aronot/closets. We went to Talpiot on Thursday and the excursion was made shorter by the mere fact that back in May we did most of our "shopping around" for price, quality etc. We ended up for a number of hours in a very small store with one guy running it whose patience was excellent! We truly had a wonderful experience picking out, designing and ordering these closets. They will be delivered and installed (that was part of the deal as I have been doing ENOUGH building!!) on August 4th B'ezrat Hashem. After that point, we can actually stop living out of suitcases and boxes, as our clothing and much of our stuff will have homes in closets!
We also located Home Center, a quasi Home Depot type of facility. It was great to find that kind of store here!!
Friday was a chock-full day as I finished the bookcases (finally), organizing the rest of the Sefarim and a good percentage of the kitchen was unpacked. It also was a day with many people stopping in including a guy to fix our phone lines and install Shabbat clocks for the lights. The clocks work but along the way he disconnected the upstairs A/C, which, of course, I did not realize until an hour before Shabbat! Oh well, back to the drawing board on Sunday, I guess.
Shabbat...what a wonderful Shabbat it was. On Friday night, I had the opportunity to speak (in Ivrit of course) in the Bet Kenesset before Maariv. There were about 150 people there and the feedback was positive. I am VERY glad that I have been working on my Ivrit over these past few years! We ate by a family to whom I am indirectly related to, then it was off to home and much needed rest. Unfortunately, I did not sleep the greatest, but I did get up early for the first Minyan (6:30am). I came home, made Kiddush and learned/read until the afternoon, at which time we took a leisurely walk to Susie and Jeremy Ben David for lunch. They have been SO helpful to us along the way, as have SO many others as well.
One very nice event in the afternoon...Rav Noam and Racheli Balsam (who had spent a few years in Chicago) just had a baby girl. We were invited to their home for Seudah Shlisheet in honor of the new baby. Food, nice singing, a Dvar Torah...all combined to make up a beautiful end of Shabbat experience!
Tommorow, Andy and I go with our youngest, Eliana, to Zvia (the school she will be attending) for a get-to-know-you series of events and we are really looking forward to it! Both Andy and I have visited the school over the past few months and have been VERY impressed on many levels. Hard to believe that my youngest begins High School soon!!
There are some more random thoughts to share but I am tired and heading to sleep. More to come.
Shavua Tov from Maale Adumim, Israel
