I didn’t get to write yesterday because my day turned out to be as stuffed as a moose head in a hunting lodge. All good things, thankfully, but by the time I got home at MIDNIGHT, I was way too bombed to sit down and write about it.

My second day back at Midreshet Rachel offered me a lovely surprise: I’ve been promoted! No, I’m not teaching the classes (Yet), but they did move me up a level in my Chumash (Bible) class because my textual skills have improved. My new class is smaller but all of the people in it are my closest friends at school, and they quickly called me over to be part of their chevruta (learning team). That move was a huge boost to my confidence and made me even MORE excited about coming back. The class after that was called “The Jewish Woman”, taught by a firecracker of a woman named Dina Coopersmith, who talked about the power a woman has to influence the people around her, particularly her family. Unlike men, women have the foresight and intuition to understand the long-term implications of things, while men get caught up in the present, minute details. The class, essentially, is going to be about how the future of the Jewish people basically relies on us. I can definitely deal with that :). Actually, the class reminded me of a story I heard once about Bill and Hilary Clinton. The dynamic duo were driving somewhere and pulled over at a gas station. It turned out the owner of the station was a former flame of Hilary’s. As they pulled away, Bill said, “Can you imagine if you’d married that guy? You’d be the wife of a gas-station owner!”. “No,” Hilary retorted. “HE would have been president!”.

As it turns out, my teacher Dina lives about two minutes away from me so I hitched a ride home with her, thereby saving me a 45-minute commute, just enough time to run over to the grocery store to get food for Shabbat before I had to meet Yonah at home. I zipped through the store (a refreshing throwback to my single-gal days) and ran into Chaim at the checkout (he was picking up lunch while he waited for Shuie to come home; they go to the gym together in the afternoons). Chaim chauffeured me home, where I met a happy Yonah and Shuie. Twenty minutes later, Yonah and I were out the door again to meet Rachel and Shmuel Yaakov for a walk to the playground, where we met another Mommy named Nomi and her son, Yaakov Moshe (Are we seeing a pattern here?). Yonah played beautifully, of course, and even tried his first peanut-butter and jelly sandwich (Yaakov Moshe was kind enough to trade for some of Yonah’s rice cakes). I hadn’t given Yonah nuts or strawberries before, but I was only a quick run from the pediatricians in the event of an allergy breakout. Luckily, we completed out afternoon outing free of emergency and with new friends made.

I had an interesting conversation with Rachel and Nomi at the park, all about what our dreams our for the future. More specifically, we painted a picture of what we wanted our lives to look like ten years from now. I was surprised to hear about what kind of houses they wanted and what they wanted them to look like. I totally get the idea of wanting a house; I even have some ideas of how I would want my dream house to look (rustic yet modern, like a woodsy hunting lodge but with a funky, artsy feel). But, for me, when you ask me what I want my life to look like in ten years, I think about what I’ll be doing: teaching, ideally, writing, raising my kids of course, doing outreach and opening my home to people. That isn’t to say that my friends didn’t talk about what they wanted to be doing, I guess I just didn’t expect the house to come first.

Yonah and I got home WAY past naptime, but he wasn’t interested in sleeping for very long. Within half an hour of coming home, Uncle Seth Perkins arrived to spend the rest of the afternoon and have dinner with us. We always love seeing Seth (Yonah included); for me, it gives me a sense of connection with my sister, who is also Seth’s best friend. Having him around makes me feel like I have family nearby. When Shuie got home from the gym, he, Seth, Yonah and I all sat down to dinner, which, despite our best intentions, we rarely do all together during the week. It was so, so nice.

Later in the evening I headed over to Katamon for a meeting. I was tired but pushed myself to go, knowing that I was going to be too busy cooking today to get out again. Now that I’ve been making regular appearances at the meetings, I’ve been connecting with some of the other regulars, who invited me out for coffee after the meeting. Despite the fact that it was already 10 p.m., I agreed (In Mommy time, this is like way breaking curfew). We headed over to a busy coffee shop on Emek Refa’im, where we all chatted and laughed for a little over an hour. By the time I got home, it was already midnight (beat the pumpkin by a hair!) and Shuie, bless his heart, was washing the dishes for me. I fell into bed exhausted, but happy.

I guess a life is actually building up around me, slowly but surely: new friends, new places, new experiences. Who said life ends when you become a parent?

This morning I am cooking, cooking, cooking. We’re having seven, possibly eight guests this evening, and being a red-blooded Jewish mother I am scared there isn’t going to be enough food. There always ends up being enough, but at least if I overcook we’ll have enough leftovers to tide us over for a while. Lots to do, so off I go…