back to school........again!

The kids were off school ....AGAIN.....for the whole week last week due to the feasting for the end of Ramadan....i have to say that it is quite annoying when the schools take breaks for EVERY SINGLE religious holiday.......sometimes their off for christian feasts that I've never even heard of.Just when you start getting back into a routine again after the summer hols...their off again...aaaaggghhhh!!!! I wonder if the Jewish schools (religious or secular) are off for christmas and Ramadan.I'm sure they are not which is fair enough. Why then do the predominantly christian schools in Nazareth HAVE to be off for all the Muslim holidays.I am not being discriminating in ANY WAY.........we don't observe Ramadan,it's not our holiday.....so why do all our children have to miss school because of it? I would not expect Jews or Muslims to observe christmas and easter etc. At the same time Muslims who attend christian schools are all off for our holidays.Sometimes I think wouldn't it be better to have separate schools? but then of course everyone would whinge about discrimination and yadda,yadda,yadda.........maybe logistically it would be difficult to have separate schools,and hey...I'm all for my kids learning about and respecting other religions, but i can't help feeling a tad resentful when my kids are off school every 5 minutes for holidays that don't really have anything to do with us..........

broody????...........

Well....I'm 41 and I have 6 children the youngest of which is 9 months.As I'm sitting here at the computer the 4 oldest are watching TV and arguing about sitting space on the sofa and annoyingly giving running commentaries of every little detail of the movie....you would think that I would have had enough by now........why then ,am i feeling broody...that insistent urge that tells me to add yet another to my clan.I wonder if that feeling will ever go away.I don't feel as though I'm really done. Actually I thought I was done after 4. Then I found myself pregnant with number 5.....I have to be honest and say that I wasn't happy about it.....but after a while I got used to the idea and ended up feeling really happy and excited about it....HEY...I thought ,5 kids will be fun!!!!! So I accepted it and that was that. Then at 11 weeks I had a miscarriage and was utterly devastated.I just cried and cried and felt the loss so intensely.After that it was like my eyes were suddenly opened.I think that sometimes we can really take motherhood for granted...I definately had! I suddenly realized what a special and precious privelege it really is....so I had Isabel and 6 months after her i fell pregnant with Alice!!!!!! Don't misunderstand me........I'm not some kind of supermum. It's hard work,relentless,you have no personal space,exhausting,draining and you just have to completely sacrifice your own needs and desires,and trust me there are days when I am NOT enjoying it!! At the same time,it is such an amazing journey,the whole pregnancy and child-birth experience,wondering who this next one is going to be,who will they look like.And that's the easy part......then they get older and start answering you back!!!! I dunno...........part of me says NO WAY you can't handle anymore....that's it,you are definately done....but then that makes me feel really sad and a little voice deep within me cries ooohhh ..just one more????..........also I am getting a bit old!!!!!.......time is running out..........I think my cut off point will have to be 42!!!! oooooohhhhh.....I dunno, We'll see.................

goats

Another hilarious thing about living here is that you can be speeding down a busy highway,like between Nazareth and Haifa as we were today,and suddenly the road will be blocked by a huge herd of goats plus goatherd!!!!! The kids of course LOVE it....but it really is bizarre.....you are in a 21st century car in a modern ,VERY Americanized country and suddenly you are surrounded by bleating goats.You feel like you just stepped back in time oohh..I dunno...say 2000 years.......honestly you half expect Jesus and his disciples to come walking around the corner.........these things I will never get used to here!!!!!!!..............

living in the bible...........

I think most of the time I really take for granted where I am actually living.I remember at school singing hymns about Jerusalem and Israel....reading about weddings in ca'na,the banks of the sea of galilee,fishermen,fishing boats,capernaum.........mystical,far away places.Now of course these are everyday places for me.At home if I mention somewhere like Can'a,people are like...WHAT?...but thats in the Bible....does it actually exist now??......and I'm like oh yeah it's just up the road from me! It really blows people away.It's easy for these epic landscapes to become commonplace,but every so often as I'm driving around ,I'll suddenly notice them again.Spectacular violet and red mountains across in Jordan.....breathtaking.The sea of Galilee is another of my favourite places here.It is sooooo peaceful........and blue and beautiful and really calms the spirit.Then theres the simple everyday things.......the olive trees.....very important in Arab culture,each tree with its ancient twisted branches has a soul.The lemon trees........now i never get bored of the lemon trees.You see in England a lemon tree growing in your garden would be a thing of rare wonderment! Here,they are absolutely everywhere and I love them.They feel.........exotic.....and smell irresistible.The way the bread is baked!......it goes through the oven on a conveyor belt and comes out puffed up into round balls,then deflates into round flat pittas! Well as I keep saying .....I must sort out my photos and get them on here!!!! Still haven't gotten round to it....but I will...soon..........

sunday..........

We actually made it to church today!!!We've missed alot over the summer what with one thing and another.I feel bad if we miss it coz the kids really enjoy it.I usually take the 4 older ones and leave my toddler and baby at home with Baba!!!Needless to say he is not a church goer!!! I was brought up a Catholic but I always hated the rigidity of the Catholic church.....of course it may have changed now I have no idea....but anyway ......here we go to the local Baptist church....i was introduced to it by one of my friends here.When I first went I was really surprised at how diferent it was to Catholic Mass.There was no formal Liturgy but informal prayer and one long sermon by different preachers each week.They have alot of visitors from overseas so there really is an interesting variety of styles and it's great if it's in English as the Arabic can be a bit difficult to understand sometimes and listening to the translation through earphones can be a bit annoying!!! Anyway...I really enjoy the informal atmosphere of the church and the feeling that anyone is accepted.The hymns are also really beautiful..........Later in the afternoon I decided to take 5 children to macdonalds, baby stayed at home with Baba again! I'm constantly amazed at how much 9 and 10 year old boys can eat....sometimes my 9 year old stuffs his face so much that he ends up throwing up!! My toddler Isabel had a hissy fit in the middle of macd's and knocked a tray of cola and fries all over the floor...thank-you,great....so as I'm shuffling about the floor on all fours she starts screaming and whining at the top of her lungs.....through gritted teeth i said to my son "GET HER OUT OF HERE!!!!!"....hhhhmmmmmmm ,toddlers are tough.People always say that teenagers are the most difficult to deal with (I haven't had the pleasure yet!!) but I'd rather have a teenager that didn't speak to me than a completely irrational,moody unreasonable toddler...aaaaaggghhhhhhhh!...........

cold turkey.......

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oh no......

is it really that date again already? Has it really been 7 years since that horrible day?