Things

We finally got a vacuum yesterday.

Yes, we have been living in a very sandy city, with a husky, without a vacuum for five weeks. This is what the vacuum container looked like (originally empty) after 20 minutes of vacuuming.

It's funny the pleasure that small things and items can bring when your life is suddenly severely simplified and revolves around completely different agendas and goals. Once cleaning was complete I stood in the middle of our apartment for a few minutes just observing the cleanness of it, letting my accomplishment soak in.  It's the little things right?

A few weeks ago, our air shipment arrived that was majority my clothes (LOL sorry Andrew) but also a handful of kitchen utensils/appliances.  And it was glorious, because suddenly having a French press allowed me to stop having to go to coffee shops every morning - where simply ordering a 'cup of coffee' is not a thing.  You order a cup of coffee, they ask what kind - Americano, Cappuccino, Macchiato?

Just normal coffee please?

Coming right up, says my French press.

The arrival of the blender suddenly allowed breakfasts on-the-go for Andrew, which will become even more joyous when our protein shipment arrives.

A wonderful friend out here with a car even dragged our jet-lagged butts to IKEA the first Sunday we arrived (yes, Israel has IKEAs - a few actually) and suddenly our all-marble apartment became a little bit cozier with a few rugs.

The last of our belongings are on a boat somewhere; honestly, probably in the middle of the Atlantic if I had to guess, and odds are with the customs process and FIVE Jewish holidays in October (some even multiple days long) we won't see any of it until November.  Which is fine, we came to terms with that awhile ago, but I'll tell you what when that stuff gets delivered, I may just shed a few tears of joy and bury myself in our couch for a solid ten hours.

I realize it is semi-superficial to place too much value in THINGS, but I also believe in the midst of big life changes, the familiar can help reduce the panic.  Sitting down this morning and having a cup of American (Dunkin Donuts) coffee in my familiar mug that was a wedding gift, it's simple, and it's comforting.

Another girl (woman, if we are being formal) actually moved here with her husband the same day that we did, and I've had the blessing of getting to know her well, as we share very similar struggles and our emotional ups and downs seem to coincide week by week.  I'll spare babbling on too much about it, but in summary we agreed upon this:

The ups and downs of life - in our case right now, adjusting to living in a foreign country - they don't necessary make sense.  I can be perfectly fine, and a few minutes later find myself crying over an Instagram picture because I miss my friends, or because an employee at the restaurant gave me a weird look.

The ups and downs of life don't have to make sense, so if I want a vacuum cleaner arriving yesterday to be part of an up, well then damnit it will be.

Cheers -

Kait