Chequered

 

My week so far - stretching back into last week - reminds me of the chequered garment that was part of the honourable and dignified garments that the High Priest wore.

    I'm not sure about honourable and dignified, but my days have certainly been interesting. HaShem is not letting me stand still for a moment!

    I am now well into building my 2nd-level Hebrew curriculum - been putting it off for ages - and I have two new high school students for extra Afrikaans lessons. So, Baruch HaShem, not only is my teaching schedule busier, but I also have to find time to prep all the lessons and construct my curriculum.

    Add to that daily prayer, which takes at least a couple of hours a day - what a privilege! - as well as the several learning classes I do during any given week.

    There have been times during this and last week where certain happenings have cause an inner pain, but HaShem helped me to set aside my emotions momentarily and just continue through everything with aplomb. A Rabbi once said: "Put your feelings in your pocket." Good advice.

    I have now planted almost all of my winter seeds and I have no space to plant any more right now, except some Radishes, which I shall plant in pots on Friday. I have my Yacon, Banana, Carrots, Garlic, assorted Tomatoes, Lettuce and Winter Leaf Crop in the garden which I hope to reap a bountiful harvest from in the near future. Lots of garlic. I shall preserve it in either Olive oil or some kind of vinegar, I haven't decided yet.

    On Sunday, 3 of my 4 children in East London and I went to spend some time with my mom on Mother's Day. It was lovely. We had a picnic in the little tea garden and enjoyed each other's company. What beautiful memories.

    I started a batch of Italian Roast Tomato Soup on Monday night and had to do it in stages because of my classes and last night when I finally put the bottles in the canner and switched the stove on, before the water had even boiled, all the lights tripped. The landlord was kind enough to go to the board in the garage and we worked out that it was my little Salton Mini Kitchen that was tripping everything.

    I didn't descend into immediate despair, but I did wonder what I was going to do without an oven/stove. And how was I going to finish canning my five bottles of soup?

    After a few minutes of quiet pondering, I messaged a friend and asked if she could possibly collect the bottles and pot and finish the process at her home for me. She kindly collected them this morning. I gave her the instructions for the part of the process that still had to be completed and she was repeating the two time measurements to herself as she got into her car. Bless her beautiful heart. I am so grateful,

    OK, that sorted out the soup. How was I going to prepare food? I had a small pot of the tomato soup that I was going to have for dinner last night but couldn't warm it up. I was just going to give it to my friend with the potful of bottles, but then the landlady kindly said she would be happy to warm it up for me this evening. 

    I had 2 slices of seeded toast with pilchards and onion that I had grilled and put in the fridge. Not wanting to bother the landlady again, and wanting to eat them for lunch, I asked my downstairs neighbour if he could warm them up for me. He was so happy to help, I almost cried. When I phoned him and asked, I offered to give him one of the slices and he said:

    "Penny, you don't have to pay. You're my mother and it's good for me to help you."

    I was so deeply touched by his words. 

    He is younger and likes very loud music at times. I don't. So I used to often message him and ask him to lower the volume. He was always good natured about it. He no longer does the loud music thing, ever since I offered to buy him blue tooth headphones! Nowadays, if he sees me, he will ask:

    "Am I making a noise?"

    I will say "No", and we will laugh.

    The other day we had this exchange again and I said:

    "Oh shame, it's terrible to be my neighbour!"

    "No," he said, "you keep me grounded."

What a truly sweet young man.

    So today, when I collected my toast from him and gave him a slice, we spoke about tomorrow and other days in the foreseeable future. He offered to bring his little portable stove upstairs to me to use on a daily basis. Such kindness almost made me cry again.

    You might be wondering why I don't just get another stove. Well, they are now almost R1000 - way out of my reach. My son said he would try and help with the cost, but he doesn't have spare funds now. The friend who is finishing my soup said she has a spare one at home that doesn't switch off by turning the knobs and has to be unplugged. She is bringing it for me to use when she returns my bottles.

    In the meantime, I thought it might be good to get started on the little cardboard box solar oven the LORD had told me to make ages ago. I went to Spar, got 2 square boxes and have mostly cut them to the necessary specifications and measured for the polystyrene. When funds become available I shall purchase said, cover them with foil, purchase a slab of glass and hopefully put together a simple, working solar oven. It takes 30 minutes to cook one egg in full sunshine, so I shall have to start making dinner as soon as the sun is up in the morning!

    I have a cast iron pot, but there is nowhere for me to make a fire - too many trees on the property. I can't even make a fire!

    I took 4 of my books in for a quote to get them fixed - my siddur, Yom Kippur machzor, Hebrew-English New Testament & my Chumash. Imagine my surprise and delight when the consultant said she would get them repaired at no cost to myself! I picked those up last week on Friday. So blessed am I!

    So, this thing about the oven didn't catch HaShem by surprise. And even though it seems like it wasn't necessary for it to happen, I know I can relax in His Hands. When He sends a test or a trial, He already knows the beginning from the end. What He wants to see is how we are going to REACT to the situation. I think I got somewhere between 50 and 70 percent for this one. An improvement to be sure.

    In less than an hour I will be meeting my lovely Grade 6 Afrikaans student on Teams, then later chatting to my beloved grandson on Zoom, followed by a group study on Romans and some reading in the Jerusalem Talmud with a friend.

    In the last 10 days, then, I have been overwhelmed, ecstatic, diminished, upgraded, felt hopeless and abandoned and felt great joy. I have laughed and cried. I have been human. And HaShem, the God of the universe, has helped me in all of my states. I could never live without Him.

Enjoy the rest of your day and evening!