"The Holy City"

We can't believe we're living here! Israel is a crazy place......in some ways it feels like a spiritual bowl of spaghetti. So many religions sharing a very small amount of space, we're in an apartment in an arab neighborhood, so muslim prayer calls all the time, orthodox Jews all over another part of town, feels like you're in a movie set, and then "Christian" groups pushing their opinions, and really desperate to "plant their sign" for their denomination. 

It's a mess, but really interesting to see it all up front. People get what they call "Jerusalem Syndrome" where they are SURE they are called here and burn their passports, etc. Pretty nuts. So far, we still have our passports.......:)

I will say the Western Wall is an amazing place and we all feel something special there, but not being weird. I still get goosebumps every time I go and read this sign there.

So, we're waiting for Miles and working at "For Zion's Sake". It is a great ministry filled with good people. There is another girl here from the states, staying for 2 months before she goes back to college, so we've adopted her and the kids now have an older sister named Elizabeth! She's only here for another week and we'll be sad when she leaves and we're at the apartments by ourselves. 

Rachel is doing great, glad to not be climbing stairs up and down on the boat, but ready to NOT be pregnant. Only 5 weeks to go, all Miles' clothes are washed and ready and we have a little portable bed set up and waiting.......the weather is a lot like Arizona, dry and hot, so she tries to lay low during the day and sit in the A/C.

Last week we had a birthday party at the apartment for Lily, it was heaps of fun! Lily loves birthdays so much, it really makes it special, she's been counting down for only 2 months! 

SO, there's our week, talk soon!

Hems

Goodies from the Galley....:)

Hi all! Yes It's been awhile for the blog. We are enjoying the freedom of living make in " the reall world" ;) haha But no it's been a nice change and we are actually quite busy!!

I wanted to explain again why I keep posting all these blogs of food when we're supposed to be taking about sailing right? Well this past year (with Mom's encouragement) I really have

developed a love for being in the kitchen! Mom wanted me to keep consistantly baking in our VERY small size kitchen on the boat....saying if I could learn to bake in that little place I could bake/cook anywhere! Anyway, that's why I keep posting pictures of foods I'm baking. That and cause I want to make your mouth water....:) Haha

So like 3 days ago.....Lily had a birthday...........and I got to make her cake!!! A new challenge!! :) I studied and researched all I could the week before trying to understand the easiest way to make a layered cake. Many long hours were spent on the laptop. While staring at mouth-watering cakes!! But the day of her birthday (after about 4 hours of working) the cake turned out pretty good! Not what I had planned from the beginning but Lily loved and it and that was my main goal.

Here's pictures of the final product....:) Hope you enjoy!

Til next time, Maggie

Ashdod

Hey all, we're on the move! Things are busy as always (with 5 kids are they ever quiet?) and we're now in Jerusalem for the next few months. We made the move last week after we took the boat down to Ashdod. 

Ashdod is a cool city on the coast south of Tel Aviv and is fairly "new" It was planned out from the beginning, so it flows well and actually makes sense. Hard to say about most cities! Anyway, we parked the boat in an inexpensive marina for the time being and got it all cleaned up. Emptying the fridge, turning of the appliances, basically winterizing it. It was kinda sad for all of us getting off after a year and although we're excited about going to Jerusalem, Mehari is still our home for now and leaving home is always a strange feeling. 

So, armed with 4 bags and 4 backpacks, we took all our things for the apartment and taxied to the train station. The train system in Israel is excellent and we had fun switching at the stations, making our way up the mountain to Jerusalem. It's a beautiful route that doesn't follow the road and winds its way though some gorgeous produce and olive groves, then follows a river as is climbs through a canyon. We got to the train station, still about 4 miles from the apartment and after catching a ride with a van from the ministry of For Zions' Sake, we got settled in and even found cheap felafels across the street! We hope they offer 'frequent eater miles'


We'll post some of what we're up to in a week or so......


~ Hems

takin' on the jellies!

Sorry for the flagrant plagerism of "Finding Nemo", but it was really cool sailing down from Hertzlyia to Ashdod. We decided to move the boat there and save some $$ while we're going to be in Jerusalem.


As we headed out of the marina, we noticed hundreds of jellyfish in the water and thought they were concentrated to one area, but the further we went, hundreds turned into thousands and thousands!!!


They were everywhere! I don't know what caused it, but we'd never seen anything like it. Levi managed to scoop one up on a boat hook and we studied it for a while before throwing him (her? we didn't think polite to ask!) back in.


Anyway, it was a unique day as we saw some amazing things in nature and actually had a pretty great sail down the coast.


 Getting things packed up on the boat and heading into Jerusalem soon.


Hems