I slept later today that I have in forever. Well, technically not slept since I wasn't asleep the whole time, but stayed in bed later and it felt so good.....lying there listening to the sounds of the house, the animals and kids coming and going....even Ron coming and going too. All without bothering me even once. The downside is that feeling of just a little bit of guilt for staying in bed so long and being lazy.
Not that the day was totally unproductive. We finally started working on a project I've wanted to do for the 2 years we've been in this house - an art area in the garage for the girls. I've got some of the area cleared out, and the next step, due to weather, was to put the air conditioner in the garage window. Richard even came over to help with that. Thanks, Rich! Bad news is, it wasn't until after we had the unit in the window that Ron thought to check it to see if still works. It doesn't. Richard very nicely offered to come back tomorrow to help us to take it out of the window. Darn! (the a/c unit, not Richard's offer.)
The day wasn't a total loss, though. We hardly saw the girls, Devon spent the day at the barn and Aubrey with a friend, so Ron and I had a lunch date. 4 Rivers - how anyone can not love barbecue is beyond me! And 4 Rivers is so good, it's easy to see why people stand in line for it. Even their bakery looks delicious - almost irresistible, too bad they're not a kosher bakery so we could use them for Aubrey's bat mitzvah. And they have the coolest collection of sodas - all in antique style bottles and crazy flavors. I'm thinking of taking Dad there next time he's in town and we can do a cream soda taste test - they had at least a half dozen different kinds of cream soda alone.
Tomorrow is the model seder for the kids at Sunday school. I love this synagogue, they really go big when they do something. Each student gets their own mini-"seder plate" to eat and learn from as they are walked through the meaning of the seder and the holiday of Passover. Ron's coming to help set up the tables while I'll be helping set up the plates - including peeling the 30 hard boiled eggs and placing 30 shank bones and spoonfuls of charoses (yum!) and so on. Can I be a kid?
Afterwards, we're heading beachward - not to go to the beach itself, but Daytona is having their annual Jewish Heritage Festival and we're going to check it out. The religious director and his wife from a synagogue we used to belong to are musicians. When we knew them, years ago, they played Jewish music, so beautiful, and we bought one of their cds. They've changed their style a bit in the years since we've seen them and now play klezmer music, but they're performing at the festival and we're looking forward to hearing them. I know Devon likes klezmer music, we had a band at temple one night and she wouldn't leave as long as they were playing. Mostly the girls are looking forward to riding a camel.
So, remember I said everyone asks us for BIG favors? We've had a houseguest the last 2 nights....the cousin of a friend. This is it, though, he cannot stay on a school night, even though the girls are lobbying Ron and I to allow him to move in. Not happening, even though I do feel badly that he's lost his place to live. I mean, it's not like we're close to him, and he must have other friends and family in the area he could ask. I feel like I'm tossing a stray puppy out onto the streets, but there's no way we could have someone live with us. The rational part of my brain knows this, and it's not like I want someone to move in with us, I just feel really badly for this young man, a kid really. How do we find these people? How do these people find us? I swear we're a magnet for needy people!
Big sigh. You do what you can do, right? I wish I could do more.
I was reading, at work, about the guy who won the Volunteer of the Year award. He volunteered over 700 hours last year. And he has 4 kids, including a baby. His wife must be so understanding! He's actually a volunteer firefighter. I'm very impressed. Firefighters always impress me - not because they're in uniform (although I do so love a man in uniform!), but being able to go into a burning building, to help people the way they do. Certainly has a way of making a person feel inadequate in what they do....now I want to do even more!
I think it really helps if you have a passion for something. That enables you to commit and helps those around you appreciate that commitment and support your efforts. I don't have that type of commitment to anything. Maybe there's something lacking in me? I enjoy my volunteer work, but I'm not driven and there is no one cause that compels me to support it. Reminds me of my career aptitude tests - lots of interests with no one overriding interest to point me towards my destiny. Even my personality tests come up out of the norm...evenly split introverted and extroverted, and so on.
So, I guess I'll go on doing what I enjoy doing, and trying new things, hoping someday to have that epiphany, that moment where lightning strikes and I realize this is what I was meant to do, what I was put here for.....either that or I'll just roll over and go back to sleep.
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