Rosh Hashanah day

I had told Drew last night that my foot ached so much that I maybe would go to the hospital today, and so he interpreted that to mean that he should send Rachel to school (even though we'd told them that Rachel would be home for the day). Bottom line: I woke up at 8:30 as she was dressing for school. I stopped the process; she put on a dress, Drew and I got into a huge argument; he stomped off to work and I threw on some clothes, my boot for my sore foot, and we got to synagogue only 15 minutes late this morning (as opposed to 30 minutes late on Sunday. Hey, that's progress).

Several other people were late, too. Rachel spent much of the service lying on my lap (Sunday she sat ON my lap, burying her face in my neck and kissing me) but said she was listening as the rabbi gave an excellent sermon on white privilege and duty of Jews to work for social justice. It was truly inspiring and I hope to incorporate some of those lessons in my own life this year.

Luckily we got to hear the shofar not once, not twice, but three times -- Rachel had really been looking forward to it -- and they called all the kids up to help put the Torah away after the long reading (although Rachel was disappointed that she didn't get to at least help put the caps on the scrolls and the pointer in place). I had brought in a notebook and colored pencils, without telling her, just in case she got bored, but she wasn't restless or obnoxious at all -- and the service was 2 hours, pretty long for a kid her age. I thanked her tonight for her patience.

On the way from synagogue to the car, which I had to park quite a ways away, we noticed other people were walking to their cars, too. "Those are the unfortunate souls who got here late," she declared. Sometimes she really does sound like a little old lady, the way she talks.

Then we stopped to buy lunch salads for me this week, got home and had lunch, and then Rachel said, "May I please got upstairs and take a nap? I'm tired," and I said sure, and then I lay down too, and didn't get up until 2:30. Rachel was up by then and wanted to play on the swings and I said, sure, go outside, and then I set about getting things ready for an early (5 p.m.) dinner because I was going to take her to her first gymnastics class. We didn't finish our quick meal until 6:15, but we made her class with time to spare.

I had really, really wanted us to go for a walk or a long bike ride because it was a perfectly beautiful day -- sunny and only 75 degrees -- but my foot hurt and I couldn't rouse either of us to do so (Rachel spent a lot of the afternoon reading). Sigh. Next year? When I'm better?