Thoughts from a frazzled housewife
World Cup soccer. I have absolutely no opinion on it. The only team I have known anything about is Ghana, because that is where Aide #1 is from and we love him, so we love his team. Otherwise, I haven’t a clue who is playing, who is winning, and that is that.
I do know what has been happening in the world of basketball. Husband #1 has always been a Knicks fan. The only thing I know about basketball is that Christian Laettner was a very good-looking player and that Michael Jordan was awesome. Of course, now everyone knows that Jalen Brunson’s wife is Jewish, but that has nothing to do with why the Knicks won the championship, or does it?
Currently I am obsessed with watching instagram posts with Jalen and his father. They make me cry every time. And the videos of Jalen (yes, we are on a first name basis) and his teammate Josh Hart — those make me laugh every time. Laughing is good. And all that Instagram stuff is better than the news. Does it make me ignorant? Probably, but it keeps me sane, which is way more important. (And my “sanity” is all relative, so there’s that.)
As I write this, I am getting my hair colored. As I have written before, I hate getting it colored. I do it because my boys don’t like when my hair is gray. I guess it is a mortality thing. Though they would prefer that I cover it altogether, as I have written before, that will most likely never happen. Though, for Mother’s Day, they got me a “Camp Babka” hat, so I might add that to my already stylish wardrobe when I am running Camp Babka international in a few weeks.
Nothing says fashion like an overweight woman dressed all in black with a white baseball hat. I am classy that way. I bring the same four dresses every time I go, and my “special” one for Shabbos. They all wash and hang dry magnificently and nobody really cares. Peace and good health — that is all that matters.
I have one suitcase that is already packed with clothes and toys for Danish and her sisters and Matzo Ball. It was 53 pounds, but I got it down to 49, approximately. My weighing system isn’t exact, so I am always pleasantly surprised when my bags weigh what they should. The good thing about not bringing a lot of clothes is that you have more room for the stuff your kids need.
Because the shekel exchange rate has been so low (or is it high, I have no idea — I just know that it is bad for the dollar) I bought all of my toys in America. I will probably end up buying more in Israel, just don’t tell Husband #1. And because Danish and her sisters are close in age, I buy two of the same thing. (Danish’s younger sister is still too young to realize that she isn’t getting anything. That is no longer the case with Strudel’s little sister, but that is another story.)
I told Matzo Ball’s parents that I have 20 pounds worth of room for their requests, so the first Amazon delivery has been packed. Four pounds down, 16 to go. Who am I kidding, when you have only sons, and your daughters-in-law request something, you forgo packing anything you might need for yourself so they are happy. Yes, I am definitely overcorrecting, but I don’t care. My daughters in law are amazing and they make my sons happy, so whether it is sitting in traffic or shlepping sheets, it doesn’t matter.
I have absolutely no idea what has happened to this column, I will blame it on the hair dye chemicals affecting my brain.
How is your summer going? I saw a truck picking up trunks on my block the other day while I was outside playing with Strudel and Little Curly and I thought back to all those years of labeling 60 pairs of socks and 400 pairs of underwear and wondering where all of that time has gone. And, more importantly, why I haven’t thrown out any of those trunks that are gathering dust under the ping pong table.
Good times. Cherish them.
Banji Ganchrow of Teaneck has, God willing, one more column to be written in America (Happy 250th Birthday, by the way) and then she looks forward to writing from the Holy Land.