Busy week

I have a lot to do this week.

Yesterday, I hardly had time to catch my breath. I got up early, got myself and everybody dressed, got DS to the school bus and went to work at the office. When I got home after lunch, I pulled together the snow pants, jackets, knit hats and gloves for the 8-y-o and 4-y-o for their ice skating class. They had a great time. Then home again, rushing to cook dinner, and greeting the babysitter because it was back-to-school night for the 3rd grader. Good thing I went because this is going to be a challenging year. DS will need to pass tests at school on material that we never studied at home. He will need to extrapolate from prior spelling tests to spell new words altogether.

And tonight is Rosh Hashana. I already baked the special bread, Challah. The house is smelling good. And there is a nice beef stew in the crock pot. I got some apples and honey as well. Apples dipped in honey is a traditional food for a sweet new year. I told my 4-y-o about it before naptime and he ran around the house telling his little brother "HAPPY NEW YEAR! HAPPY NEW YEAR!" I love the enthusiasm of children. :-D The 3rd grader is happy because he gets to have Thursday and Friday off of school.

Yesterday was September 11th. I felt bad because I had *no* time to sit and reflect. Thinking back to that day, I feel desolate. So many innocent lives lost. I remember I had just dropped the kids off at school and turned on the radio driving home to hear the DJs gasping and talking about New York. I rushed home to turn on the television. I watched the news all morning, in my apartment, while spending some time on the patio applying stain to a new toy box. I remember my anger at hearing that this was done on purpose by organized teams of Arab terrorists. In addition, an upstairs neighbor of mine sang LOUD Islamic chants for about 3 hours straight, the type you would hear at a mosque. This man had never before prayed publicly and never did it again after that. Only on THAT DAY. I could not understand the words, but on a day like September 11, 2001, it sounded an awful lot like a VICTORY DANCE! :-( I was so angry I was seeing red, so I held back from searching through the complex for who it was. I later called the FBI tip line and reported the incident.