Half-term - on survival and improvements

Why is it, I wonder, that I can't seem to be able to get one of those weeks, you know the kind, the ones that when someone asks you - how was your week? You answer - great! It was just great! the kind of weeks that only other people have. Why is it my weeks are always mixed? I can't remember one honest "great" I gave. Yes, I lie.
The past ten days where half-term vacation for the kids, and last night Hidai and I looked at each other and just sighed with relief. We've made it through half-term.
Don't judge me, I have mitigating circumstances for setting my goal at survival:

1. Kids were in a bit af a state before the half-term started. They were in one of those - fight about everything, cry because of anything, and basically behave like a little sh*&^t towards everyone - moods. It got to the point that on the last day of nursery Yon's teacher asked me what is going on... 
2. Yon and I were half to full sick for the whole ten days (and still are).
3. We had a dentist appointment for the kids, and especially Ron because we were worried about the tooth he has growing instead of the one they took out in his surgery and if the cyst has returned.
4. We had Purim so I had Purim baking to do, which wasn't bad in itself (though I did say beforehand that I will not be baking this Purim...) but unfortunately included my mixer and my favourite rolling pin breaking down in the middle of the work.
5. We spent the whole half-term inside the house because of the weather, the fact that Yon is not cold-tolerant, and the health issues.
6. Hidai had a busy week at work and needed attention (did I mention already that he is high maintenance?) 
7. It is almost the end of the month, so no more money to spend.
8. We got some bureaucracies to handle with Yon's school registration, and in Israel.
9. Arsenal lost twice. Ron took it hard. And Hidai & Ron went to watch the match on Saturday, so we were somewhat worried it won't go well.

Yes, as I saw it, survival was my only option here. The thing is, from this list here you can see all the bad or problematic things of the last ten days, but it's not really the case, since half-term went better than expected and we actually managed to handle all those negatives and to have a good time, because:

Ron made me this, and it wasn't even Mother's day yet!

I made the kids a time-table for the half-term, I worked it out together with Ron, and taped it to their bedroom door (and explained on what days we will be deviating from it in advance....), and what do you know? It worked. It was a HUGE surprise for us, because we didn't promise them anything for good behaviour or threatened any punishments, but they actually loved it and followed it to the letter. There were (almost) no fighting, no bitching and no crying. For ten days. There was reading, there was maths, there was playing together... It was like magic :). Last night we took it down and stored it until Easter (5 weeks people. 5 weeks till the next school holiday), and Ron even said he was a bit sad that the half-term is over. All around success.

Time-table

Hidai was able to help me when I was in the really sick state so I did get one full day of being in bed and watching a ton of TV shows, and most of the times Yon and I were not so bad.
The dentist X-rayed Ron's mouth and there is no sign of the cyst! So so so relieved, and also the giant tooth he has growing now is just an adult tooth in a child's mouth, and the other ones are coming along, so everything seems to be in order, and we can come back in 6 months and not 3. Great great news (Yon's teeth, if you care are also good. His attitude sucks).

Dentist fun - trying to improve Yon's attitude

The kids actually asked to celebrate Purim. It was not my idea, I didn't have to push it on them, they even remembered most of the story and the songs from last year, and the message we assigned the holiday - One person can make a difference for the whole world (it is not the conventional message you get in Israel - someone tried to kill the Jews, didn't succeed, we rule. But it is still a true message you get from the story), and they wanted to do the whole thing - dress up (Ron is a given, but we gave Yon all the other options we have in the house - Ben 10, Peter Pan, Cowboy. Can you guess what he chose? Of course, and so I had 2 Arsenal players.), hear the songs, play the games, eat the food. It was a jewish mum's heaven.

And also, even with all the things that went wrong in the baking process, and despite my absolute conviction it will be terrible, and the fact that Hidai who is usually in charge of filling and closing the dough was too busy to do it this year, it was my best Purim food ever. The kids ate 3 pieces each. Hidai ate 6. After much deliberations and weighing of costs and use (baking versus dieting) and the fact that this one survived for 3 years, I have to have a mixer because I can't do it Paul Hollywood Style (using only hands), and I will have 2 of all the accessories (which is a big plus), we decided to stay with the same semi-professional Kenwood and not upgrade it to a real pro mixer that costs around 500 pounds, and so it will be replaced next week. The rolling pin however will not get replaced, first of all because I already have 2 others in the house, and second because it was just the handle that broke, and I can still use it. Somewhat, and I really doubt I can find the same one (it's about 9 years old...).

Purim food

Staying inside for the whole week and the kids being busy with their time-table activities meant that I could indulge in my documentation obsession. I think I mentioned it already, but let me show you the inside of an obsessive mind - we have 4 working cameras (from amateur to pro) and 2 phones that we use to take photos with. I take at least a photo a day, usually more (I know, you can't really see that I am a compulsive photographer). All the photos are stored on at least one computer, go through photoshop, saved according to date, and uploaded to an album that goes to print, Facebook, or my screensaver. After that they are backed up in the cloud. The thing is, because it takes a little time to do all that, I was somewhat behind, so I used most of last week to finish all the photos related work, and like with the laundry, the next day I already had more photos...
It is the last week of February, and we managed to reach all our budgetary goals. It was hard, it was annoying, but it was worth it, and we are saving the last of our very good wine to March first to drink for our budget success, and our road to financial recovery.
We took care of all those annoying bureaucracies with much more ease than we (okay I) would have even a month ago, so I guess that's progress, right? and also we took care of it (hopefully) and Yon will be enrolled to a school next year even though we don't have a child tax credit / benefit letter for him to prove his address, because he does have a NHS number certificate thing addressed to him, so they allowed us to use that as proof he actually lives with us. And the Israel bureaucracy is never ending it seems, even after more than 3 years... Every time we think we finished everything something pops up, but also with that I think we are making progress. Somewhat at least.
Arsenal won and Hidai & Ron had fun at the match. It was just slightly snowy, and very very cold, but a hot-chocolate and a 2:1 win helped :).

Ron at the match

We finished 4 weeks of exercise and eating better (okay not really better, but we did try to control the amount of chocolate and other sweets in the house), and even though I was totally sure that it did not help, surprisingly enough it did, and I am now once again comfortable in my tiniest pair of jeans.

That's it folks, we survived half-term, we survived February, and though I can't really say it was great, after writing this post, I can definitely say it was an improvement. And that in itself is an improvement :)