I have no idea how much meat costs.

Or most of my other groceries, for that matter. I just realized this. You see, in America, everything comes from a grocery store with price tags on it. In Israel, most of my stuff comes from an open air market that has very few, if any, price tags. The upside to this is if you go the same place often enough, the prices go down. This is what happened with my meat. The guys know me, noticed when I missed coming for 2 weeks (when I had the baby), and know what I want and how I want it cut and wrapped. (2 bags, please, no blood on the rest of my food, thank you very much...) I think also with my spice merchant. The spice guy never makes me purchase the minimum 50g any more, which keeps me from having to figure out what to do with, say, 40g of whole mace. (anyone have a recipe that calls for a lot of that spice, by the way?) I wish we ate enough fish that I could get the price of that to go down. 90 shekel for a fillet of salmon? you've got to be joking. I have figured out that some things consistently cost the same price. Like my favorite chocolate cake from Marzipan costs 18 shekel. Milk costs 3.5 for a 1 liter bag. A 1.5 liter of coke costs 5 and a .5 liter of coke costs 7 (figure that one out!). Israeli candy bars cost 4 and American ones 8, which is why my Reeses peanut-butter cup loving husband only gets them occasionally.
I should explain that a shekel is about the equivalent of a quarter, sometimes a little more, sometimes less, depending on exchange rates, but that is average. 2 bucks for a candy bar? Although, if I could get my hands on a can of Mt. Dew, I'd pay it gladly. Anyone want to mail me some Dew?

I'm a bad mommy

So, who thinks a 5 week old kid shouldn't be able to roll off a couch? I mean, they aren't supposed to be that mobile for weeks! But danged if my kid didn't roll herself right off the couch last week.
mommies have to go to the bathroom sometime, right?
The funny thing is, even though I was totally freaked out, I was also really calm once she started screaming an there wasn't any blood or bruises. The Rabbi? Not so much. He really flipped out and didn't want to give her back to me. Finally I convinced him the only thing that would make her stop crying was to nurse her. Which worked instantly, of course, because even bad mommies know how to fix boo-boos, especially ones they caused.

in other news, have you ever wondered what Christmas is like in other countries? Here, especially in my community, it is a total non-event. Well, not totally. There are a few more Christian tourists than normal (and they all want to convert me, I swear! do they realize how obnoxious that is to someone who LIVES the Bible? Prolly not). Also, my Pharmacist was closed, but that's it. In America most Jews get take out from the local Kosher Chinese place and try to forget the day exists (good luck with that, BTW). I did notice that someone was selling these small cedar trees one day last week. I'm sure they were supposed to stand in for the more common pine or fir trees of America. But today was by far the most surreal, as I walked up the Arab Shuk (open-air market) a guy in a Kufi (muslim hat) was shouting, "Merry Christmas, come into my shop, I make you good Sale!" at anyone American-looking as they passed by. Capitalism reigns supreme.

throwing the baby into the bathwater

After my mom left Jerusalem, I decided I needed a bath to console myself, so I fed the baby and began the process of getting ready to bathe. "What if she wakes up?" asked my Dear Husband. I told him to bring her in to me if she did and I would nurse her in the tub, and then she could have a bath, too. (not a super-mom approved thing, but oh well) So, I finally relax into my nice warm tub and less than 7 minutes later, I hear the DH through the door, "I'm bringing her in, she woke up." and so, he then proceeds into the bathroom and hands his wet, naked, in the tub wife a fully clothed, diapered and blanketed baby who is screaming. Um, yeah. Did it occur to him that he should take her clothes and dirty diaper off first? Um, no. At least the blanket came in handy to undress her on the bathroom floor with. But, that leads to yet another load of laundry. Ahh, parenthood!
Just a little anecdote from my day!

The first blog...

So I've decided to enter the "real" blogosphere. I've blogged on and off on MySpace, but this is the real deal. So, if you somehow end up reading this randomly, let me introduce myself.
I am a Rabbi's Wife, living in Jerusalem, in the old city. I just gave birth to my first child three weeks ago, and she is a real dolly! Everyone comments how much hair she has, and it really does look like we put a wig on her. My Husband (The Rabbi, TR for short) is in Yeshiva (school for men) full time. He also teaches Russian Martial arts, and I am a balloon artist (you know, those balloon animals from long, skinny balloons). So we're a pretty unusual couple, especially for the Orthodox Jewish world. As I've become interested in blogging, I've noticed most of the people who say they're Orthodox are really Modern Orthodox, but we are what people call "ultra-Orthodox" or Charaedi. I'm sure you'll find out more about that as the blog goes on.
Now, my thoughts for the day: It's amazing to me how much of your life becomes about peeing when you're becoming a mom. You pee to find out if you're ovulating, if you're pregnant, etc. Then, once you're pregnant you pee all the time, both for the doctor and just because! Then, once you have the baby, it pees all the time, and you have to change it. Who knew my life could revolve so much around urination? Or that I would like it?
It's true, I do enjoy being a mom so far. I know, give it time, but I've always liked kids and wanted to have a big family, so I'm thinking it's not going to pall on me. Plus, I deal with kids professionally, so I've got a pretty good idea what to expect. But that's the journey you're about to join me on. So, let's see where it all goes.
Kol Tuv (have a good week)
TRW