Moving Day

The movers arrived this morning, asked for cups of coffee, and sat chillin’ at the kitchen table, chatting away in Russian for about 30 minutes. One guy was playing a video game on his phone. The boss was the only one outside organizing boxes and setting up the packing system. I’ve been anxious about the move for days. Every time I take a bag of recycling out or drop off donations at the charity shop nearby, my kids find another stack of things that no longer fit or they don’t need/want. I just gave away a toy dinosaur to a mom who came to pick up Sarit’s school t-shirts that she outgrew this year. The papers are not organized, and I ended up just putting things in stacks to be dealt with at some later date. It always feels never-ending, yet somehow it will be done.

The movers drinking coffee

Meanwhile, the kids have been in and out of the house since school ended last week. We had events every night last week – end of school ceremonies, parties, and even a beach bar mitzvah in Tel Aviv. Monday night was the Wizard of Oz performance that Kai and Sarit have been rehearsing for since March. Kai spent an hour or so turning a pair of black crocs into Dorothy’s ruby slippers by gluing heaps of sequence all over. Sarit colored pictures that were displayed on the screen behind the stage as part of the scenery (such a fun way to involve kids in the set design from home). The show was really impressive, and Kai was thrilled afterwards that the people who came up to congratulate him on a great performance only used male pronouns even though he played the role of Dorothy. Reuben has been out of our house as much as possible because I give him screen time limits – his friends parents don’t have the same horrible rules.

Bar mitzvah party on the beach in Tel Aviv

Creating ruby slippers out of black crocs

On stage in the Wizard of Oz

We are flying to the US next week for our first visit back since arriving in Israel in 2019. The number of coronavirus cases here has been rising, particularly in the town next to ours. A family with three unvaccinated children went to the US on vacation, and then violated quarantine upon their return. Apparently, their daughter infected 230 children at her school, and another 50 of those kids’ parents were also infected. The Ministry of Health did not publish how many of those infected adults were vaccinated. The indoor mask mandate was reinstated, but compliance has been pretty low. Part of my worry about the move is also wrapped up in my fear that we won’t be able to travel. I’m just trying to remember all of my mindfulness practices and give myself time to relax.

Our new house is as ready as can be – our new landlady, Sigal, personally worked herself sick cleaning and taking care of everything. The previous tenants sound like a nightmare. They refused to leave at the end of June, and Sigal had to involve her lawyer. Ultimately, they moved all of their furniture into her garage on Sunday evening, but didn’t clean, throw away their trash, or take care of any of the repainting, all of which were their responsibility. Yesterday, congested and with a fever, Sigal called me to ask if I knew anyone who could finish cleaning the house. In a stroke of luck, our house cleaners had a cancellation, and came in the afternoon to finish the floors and final details.

Danny took the kids out to breakfast this morning, and I am now listening to the sounds of the movers taking apart all of our furniture while they listen to easy jazz radio. I trust they know what they are doing and will be able to put everything back together at the new house. I just heard a crash, but hopefully nothing broke. My neighbor, Shlomi, left me a key to his house in case I need to put anything in his refrigerator since we unplugged ours in preparation for the move. I think we have everything we need at the moment.