I didn't realize it had been so long since I last wrote. Lately I've been getting ready for Rosh Hashanah; actually, mostly worrying that I'm not doing enough to get ready for the new year.

I quit working at my transcription job. It wasn't the right job for me. It seems I need a job with more structure rather than just waiting day by day for a job to show up in my inbox and then never being able to plan activities in case something was due right away. After the chagim (holidays), I'll make a concerted effort to start looking for something better. Unfortunately, we can't afford for me NOT to work even though I have no problem staying busy 24/7 without a job. Kids are back in school and everybody's back to a routine, and I've come to the conclusion lately that I actually would enjoy getting back to going to work every day.

On Shabbos it hit me that even though we love living where we do, it's basically a community of families. There are no couples our age to socialize and share Shabbos meals with, and I've really been missing the community we left in Ramat Beit Shemesh. We have a three-day Yom Tov (holiday) coming up, and none of my friends will be here to share it with. Families with kids don't like going out for the night meals because they start so late. We invited our upstairs neighbors (they're young, French, and have three little kids) for Shabbos lunch, and I just invited another family for another lunch. This second family has two older kids in the states and three still at home, plus the husband is in computers, so hopefully we'll have a nice time. I know Rachel through Penina, and we taught her how to play mah jongg. Miryam and Shaya are going to sleep at Penina's the whole Yom Tov, and we'll probably go there for a couple of the night meals. I walked there Shabbos afternoon to play mahj before going to the late afternoon shiur (talk by one of the rabbi's wives), and walking back up the hill was HARD. There were hills in RBS, but nothing like this hill we live on. SInce I've been sitting at my computer the last few months transcribing, and also since we've had a car, and also since we now have a yard and Emma doesn't need to be walked four times a day - I have totally stopped walking and am now terribly out of shape. Someone at the shiur told me that she and a friend used to walk down to the main street and then walk all the way up to the top of hill every morning for exercise. Now that it's cooled off tremendously, I think I need to make a concerted effort to do that every day. Isn't this the time of year for new year's resolutions? And, hmmm, doesn't everyone make the resolution that they're going to get in shape?

As much as I'd like to commit to doing that, I know there are so many other ways I need to think about "getting in shape" for the new year. Like, how am I improving my middos (character traits)? How much chesed am I doing? How much time am I wasting every day? What efforts am I putting into being a better wife, a better friend, a better person? There are so many improvements I need to make and lately I've been so sluggish about doing everything. I'm leaving in about half an hour to go to the kotel (the Western or Wailing Wall). It's been months since I've been there, and I have so much to talk to Hashem about. Living here on the yishuv, all I really need to do is go to the end of my street and look all around me, and Hashem is right here. But there's something about going to that holy site in the Old City of Yerushalayim, surrounded by other yidden (Jews) that makes it really special to daven (pray) there. If I time it just right, and get on all the right buses, I can get to David's office right when he's ready to go home and we can drive home together (he took the car this morning).

שנת בראות טובה ושנת שלום A healthy year and a peaceful year!