It is so refreshing to have a REAL Sunday after Shabbos, a day to relax, get settled, unpack and clean up. My stepdaughters Sima Ellie and Huvi are here with us this weekend, so all the “settling in” stuff is basically on hold until they go home tonight. We’re not quite snowed in, but there’s definitely enough white stuff out there to make us want to scratch our plans for the day and just hang out. Shuie went off to the Chabad house for morning minyan so it’s the girls, Yonah and me for the next couple of hours.

“So what are you going to blog about now?” my Aunt Renee asked me a few days ago. Excellent question. Can life, free of big, fat international intrigue, still be interesting? I’d like to think so. There are still a million new recipes to try–I made my first from-scratch pie crust for Shabbos; I made it too thin so it ended up rock-hard. Note to self: thicker crust–a baby to bring into the world, a Yonah to play with, the rest of my life to figure out. If people will read, I’ll keep writing. Then again, I’ll probably keep writing even if people don’t read. This blog is good for my sanity.

Josh and Katherine surprised us with a visit yesterday afternoon. I was so thrilled to see them, not only because I’ve missed them so much, but because our visit ate up a good 2 1/2 hour stretch of a LONG Shabbos afternoon. We had a talk about our current places in life, how we’re all struggling to find a place that’s really “home”. J and K may find themselves elsewhere at some point in the future, and Shira and Aaron are all making lives for themselves, too. Who knows where it will take all of us? I never thought it would happen to my family because we’ve always been so close, but it seems we’re all drifting. I suppose that’s normal, probably even good (who wants to live with their siblings forever?), but it’s still a little heartbreaking, too. We will always be each other’s family, but it looks more and more like we will all be forced to created communities/families of our own, apart from the one from which we came. The home base we once had hasn’t ceased to exist, but it’s shifted shape enough to seem like another entity entirely. It will take some getting used to, but perhaps one day I will find myself happy in a “home” of our creation, perhaps even grateful for the turns in life that brought me there.

In the meantime, I am very curious to see what kind of life we can build for ourselves out here on the Cape. The Jewish community here compared to the one we just came from is like going from the middle of Times Square to the middle of the Sahara. Okay, I’m exaggerating. There is still some Jewish life here, maybe even more than I realize, and there are definitely plenty of young moms, so I’ve got that covered. If I stay open to possibility, I may find myself surprised.

Yonah calls. Must run.