Our family will be taking a trip to Israel for the month of July. I have already introduced my children to Israeli culture when I meantioned our trip to one of the supermarket checkers and this Israeli man told me and my kids not to go in July. It is too hot. Yes. I think I will change my plans that I have been working on for about a year because a man scanning my produce told me this flabbergasting piece of information that Israel is hot in the summer. He also told me it is expensive to make a ticket in the summer. Really ?? (Our tickets have been booked since last August in order to take advantage of mileage we have been hoarding.) Being that my husband is a school principal and my kids all go to school, July is the month available for us to go. So we are going. Astonishingly, ignoring Mr. Israeli-Checkout-Guy's advice.
Since we are going for a month, and I am simply not a fly by the seat of my pants kind of person, and I needed something to obsess about since my eldest son's Bar Mitzvah, I have planned and researched our trip ad nauseum. We are now a week out, so I have started packing. We are seven people, five kids ranging in age from 2 (our Princess) to 13 (the leader of the pack, our Bar Mitzvah Boy). I needed to know if anyone was missing something critical (like the correct amount of socks or pants or headlamp flashlights....), so I needed to pack early. I have been amassing things for a while, fortunately packing went relatively smoothly. There are just a few odds and ends left to aquire. My lists have lists, but that's how I know I am nearly there. I have a feeling of satisfaction just looking at those lined up suitcases. It is almost as satisfying as when I look at my itinerary spread sheet. A few more trips to Target and I will be ready to declare "Case Closed".
