Resuming routine?

It would be nice to say that everyone and everything is getting back to normal. But let's be honest, what exactly is normal? The kids are back in school; that's a good thing. We are entering another round of simcha-palooza, which will keep us out a few nights this week. Dani had two, count 'em, two peulot from B'nei Akiva that kept him out much later than we would have liked. (Apropos of nothing else, hearing Ariella pronounce "B'nei Akiva" in her little naturally Israeli way absolutely makes the heart sing.) I still can not wrap my mind around Shana's school schedule. Not only is it still in flux, but my brain keeps tricking me into remembering timing from last year! Ayelet is away on her tiyul shnati, which takes on the same pattern every year: she starts out panicking because her stomach hurts, gets over it, has a great time (yay!), and then comes home beyond exhausted and cannot hold it together. Well, maybe this year will be a deviation from the norm. And normal is not a term that can extend to the weather, either. We have resigned ourselves to the fact that "autumn" does not really exist here - no foliage tours to see the changing colors, no "sweater weather" this time of year. My older girls have ordered both sandals and boots online. They may need both within a short time span. There is rarely an in-between. So, instead, we are expecting a sharav - a heat wave - for a number of days. While NJ is expecting temperatures in the 40's and a noreaster, we are preparing for the 90's and praying for rain, in the most literal of senses.

Baking this week is extra fun for me - in addition to regular orders, I am making dessert for our friends' Lori and Seth's son Elisha's bar mitzvah Shabbat. I plan to platter a little differently for them, to add eye appeal on the tables. Hope it will work... I am making ten flavors, Lori's favorites, and I know some of Elisha's too. I will photograph a sample layout, b'li neder, as these Shabbat events never allow me the opportunity for on the spot pictures. And now it's back to the oven.

Dvora