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One thing at a time, please…?

When I’m feeling frazzled, which is all the time at the moment, I tell myself that (during my “normal life”), any one of the things I’m dealing with right now would probably be at least a big part of a very full day.

I’m not asking anyone to feel sorry for me, just suggesting that there’s a lot running through my brain at the moment.

Here’s what’s on my plate today, in no particular order.

  • Details of renting a house (utilities, taxes, making sure the money goes into our account to pay the rent?), plus questions to ask the old tenant (where can we build a sukkah, where’s the miklat?).
  • Forgot to mail a cheque to the lawyer I loved who was so helpful last week when it was a crisis – oops. :-o
  • Switching GZ to a new gan closer to where we’ll be living (we’re happy with Naomi Rivka’s school, so hopefully leaving her there).
  • Ulpan 3 times a week.  Plus, I just found out about another program in Haifa, called This is Not an Ulpan (TINAU) that has once-a-week classes starting soon.
  • Volunteer English tutoring at the library, ongoing, 3 kids/week.
  • Buying appliances for the new apartment.  We need a fridge, stove and washing machine, and somebody sane has suggested we measure the space first before we think about buying.
  • Arranging for delivery of our shipment from Canada.  A shipment that, due to the tiny size of our new apartment, will just about totally fill our new apartment.
  • Arranging for a mover to bring our possessions from the Merkaz Klitah to the new apartment, and possibly to help pick up purchased appliances along the way.
  • Establishing a freelance writing career, keeping up with new clients and assignments and making sure everyone is happy and nothing is forgotten.  Okay, this one is at least a part-time job, on its own.  Today, I have one article to revise, one to write from scratch, and 50-100 blog comments to post.  Not a ton, but nothing I can just sit back and forget, either.
  • Covering the Canadian Prime Minister’s visit next week – arranging security, access, schedule, etc.  Plus booking hotel/hostel if I need to stay over in Yerushalayim or Tel Aviv.  Actually staying in a hotel is fun, but making arrangements is not something I need in this particular week.
  • Maintaining blogs – sometimes goes by the wayside, but I have a new one I’m trying to build up at the moment.
  • Register our family for a “tik” – self-employment tax status from the government
  • Renew our Canadian passports (must go get pictures done on Friday from the one place in Haifa we’re told takes acceptable photos… then figure out how to travel back to the consulate in Tel Aviv and pay for the passports themselves)
  • Applying for whatever extension money we’re able to receive from Misrad HaKlitah (absorption ministry) given that, approaching the 6-month mark), neither of us has what could be considered a job and Ted is still not finished ulpan.
  • Paid online journalism course from a from a Very Reputable School that I paid for with my birthday money from my mother… and now I just need to start the work.  Happily, I have up to a year to do this.
  • Children’s writing course I want to take starting in February.
  • Wanting to visit Canada sometime… this is for the future, but it is always somewhere near the tippy-top of my mind.
  • Did I mention I have to go pick up Naomi Rivka in five minutes???  It’s no wonder little things like feeding my family tend to go by the wayside.

You know, when I googled “full plate,” to get a catchy picture I could include with this post, most of the pictures I found were of full-body suits of armour.  Which is really something I could use – just seal myself up inside a suit of armour until all of this, somehow, has passed.

But no.  Naomi’s finished school, so I’ll strap on my mp3 player and dash over to meet her.  And then come back and start slowly, slowly ticking things off the list, putting out fires, or, to use another metaphor because I know you won’t mind, sowing seeds of which, hopefully, we’ll eventually reap the rewards.

Maybe life will be normal again, someday soon?  Pretty please???

2 comments:

  1. this is the new normal, isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oy, don't say that. I *know* that some of these items will get crossed off. Some are once-in-a-lifetime kind of things that were taken care of long ago back in Canada. Others are once-per-apartment kind of things, like setting up utilities. In any event, the list WILL get shorter!!!

    ReplyDelete

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