Day One

6:30 am – Slowly got out of bed to wake up the kids for school.  Two boys take their time, one daughter has moved in to the bed with wife and I play annoying kids songs for the early riser. Eldest daughter heads off to Sherut Leumi. Today I am heading into the office where I freelance.  

7:00 am – Get dressed and go daven, running a bit late this morning.  Do my morning push ups and almost ready to start the day. Wife is preparing lunches for the kids in school. I grab my tuna sandwich and apple and put it in the lunch bag my kids make fun of.  All the grade school kids leave the house and make the semi short walk to their respective schools.

8 am – I head out to the bus stop, I filled up my Rav Kav at the end of last week with ₪50  (which covers ₪65 worth of rides) so I am good for the next few days.  I take the hour and a quarter commute to work while listening to music, reading the news and staring out the window.

10 am – Wife calls in and reminds me that she needs to go food shopping today…since it’s the end of the month and things are a bit tight since we recently had to a quick trip overseas for a family wedding , I asked her to take it easy.  She did spot buying (basically filling in between major shopping trips, we normally spend) and spent ₪625.  But I quickly realized that was not it, we also needed tin foil pans for a local woman we prepare food for which cost ₪35, notebooks for son in high school (₪25) and ₪40 for diapers and baby food.
₪725

1 pm – I finally sit down to eat lunch and grab a snack to go with it from the kitchen. I generally do not go and buy food, as a way to save money. I had a tuna sandwich and an apple along with a cup full of pretzels from the kitchen at work.  A colleague is leaving so there is a very nice going away party for her.

5:30 pm – Tired and feeling somewhat accomplished at a job well done, I head out for the day, and make my way up to the bus. Getting home at this hour can be tricky, I missed the direct bus so I have to take 2 buses.  Thank G-D for free transfers. It will take until 7. On my way home I text with my parents whom I haven’t seen in a long while.

7:00 pm – I get home, help clean, water the flowers outside and get ready for dinner. We have pasta and salmon. I am reminded by my son that we need to place an online order for sneakers before the cyber monday sale ends.  We both get shoes at a great discount. It comes to ₪485 total. Not on sale the final would have been close to double. Still living post trip I didn’t want this extra expense but the Black Friday sales in the States were too good to pass up. I haven’t gotten new running shoes in over 2 years….and am considering getting back into running. On the other hand, my son collects shoes.  I don’t think he needed them now but he would have needed them in a couple of months and the price would have been much higher.
₪485

8 pm – After dinner I help the kids finish up their homework and then bath and bedtime.  The younger kids get a bit wild but calm down quickly enough after some joking around. Once they are squared away I return back to my office for some evening work. This time of year is quiet for freelance so I get side tracked with other things.  

12:30 am – Time for bed. Tomorrow I work from home, so I think about the errands I need to run, starting with getting the kids to school.

Daily Total: ₪1,210

DAY TWO

6:45 am – I get up and start waking up the house.  As usual, the two boys take their time, making believe like they do not hear me. Today number five is already dressed and ready for the day. Sometimes I am not sure whose kid she is….I come back around to let the boys know they are going to be late again. Eldest daughter heads off to Sherut Leumi. Today I am home.

7:30 am – Get dressed and go daven. I take a banana for breakfast and do my morning push ups. Seems my wife already has lunches done before I come down.  

8:30 am – Leave with child number 6 and we walk to gan.  After I drop her off I head over to the mall and deal with some banking issues. I resist the temptation to stop at the bakery and buy a boreka. Will power wins again!

9:45 am – I leave the mall and make my way over to a friends house for morning chavruta. We learn for about an hour. After learning I meet my wife and walk over to an appointment for one of the kids and then head home.

12:30 pm – A friend who is starting out in web design needed some help/tutoring so we sit down for a tutoring session. It turned into more of a discussion about process and workflow.  I think it was a job well done.

3:15 pm. – I realize that I missed lunch, and I make a snack out of an apple, peanut butter and crackers, hoping it will tide me over until dinner. Child number 5 was going a little stir crazy in the house so wife takes her on a short trip to the mall to pick up some notebooks for child #2.
₪30

5:30 pm – After a semi-quiet afternoon where I was able to get some work done…or at least make contact with some new clients, a couple of kids have a performance at shul, so number 4 took the younger kids…. I had a feeling that it was not going to be up his alley at all which when he came home was confirmed, but thankfully he dealt with it in stride. Shortly after, the wife went out to Parent Teacher conferences and I stayed home with the baby. When the kids come home we have a simple and quick dinner but #5 was over tired and very crabby, making the rest of the evening very challenging.  

7:30 pm – Ah, time to start the bedtime ritual. This was an exceptionally frustrating event tonight capping off a hectic and stressful late afternoon. Not sure why, because nothing really out of the ordinary happened…but it just felt like it was one for the books. After a 90 minute back and forth  number 7, 6 and 5 are finally in bed and the day is officially over and now I get to sit back down and continue working.

9:30 pm – Took a break to watch “This Is Us” with my eldest.  It is definitely a show we bond over. After that I get some more work done.  

12:00 am – Time to call it a night. I do my evening pushups and head off to bed.

Daily Total: ₪30

DAY THREE

6:30 am – Slowly get out of bed to wake up the kids for school.  The boys are actually moving a bit quicker today. I guess the Parent Teacher meeting lit a fire under number 2. Number 5 was already up and getting ready. My morning routine was a bit easier this morning so I finish getting dressed, do my push ups and head downstairs. Today I am heading into the office where I freelance.  Excited for my review later, my first work review in a VERY long time.

7:30 am – I finish davening, grab a pancake and a tall drink of water before I head to the bus with my lunch, happy that I still have 35 shekel on my Rav Kav.  All the grade school kids leave the house and make the semi short walk to their respective schools.

10:30 am – Just got out of my review.  Happy to say I nailed it. Always concerned putting myself out there, especially after more than a decade of not being in an office atmosphere and part of a larger team.  

12:30 pm – Quick lunch at the desk in between projects.  Today is pita and homemade hummus for lunch with some veggies.

5:00 pm – Left work in good time to get the direct bus home by 6.  I heard from wife that child number 2 was in a mood and decided to question her parenting skills by picking a fight with #5.  Wow, I love teenagers, but was still hoping for a normal evening home. Oh, wait, I forgot. There was a protest in town that blocked traffic. Long story short, took close to 3 hours to get home. Awesome wife already fed and had the littles in bed. I am truly impressed.

8:10 pm – Krav maga class tonight. Super happy, get a good work out and blow off some steam for 2 hours. It has been a Sunday/Wednesday ritual for pretty much the past 11 years.  

10:45 pm – After I get home, I sit down for the first time since leaving work and answer a few emails and get a little bit of work done before falling asleep at my desk.

Daily Total: ₪0

DAY FOUR

6:30 am – Quiet, peaceful morning.  I get up, wake up the kids and after getting dressed I go down and daven and have a banana and water for breakfast. Today I am going into the office for a 4th day this week.  Still have some extra hours that I can use from when we went to the states the other week. I will probably head in after learning/study session this morning.

8:30 am – Had the distinct pleasure of walking #6 to gan this morning. She was thankfully in a good mood and got to gan at a semi reasonable time.

10:15 am – Finished what I needed at home and left for work, hoping to miss any traffic.

1:00 pm – Didn’t bring lunch with me today, so just had some salad and cheese from the office.  Quiet day at work, got a decent amount done to end of the month.

4:00 pm – Finishing up a short day after a quick week. Spoke to the wife who started Chanukkah shopping for the kids. Checked to make sure her ideas were in line with mine. I thought they all sounded fine, so today she bought a bunch of things for that.
₪300  

6:15 pm – Made it home and had a nice quiet evening with the family. Older kids were out doing their thing and was able to go to bed on the early side.

Daily Total: ₪300

DAY FIVE

7:00 am – Woke up at 7:00 this morning, expecting a low-key Friday.  Not everyone has school today, and those that do have a short day.  I was supposed to have a morning meeting for a new project but that got postponed.  All for the best on the earliest pre-Shabbat Friday of the year. Number 5 announces that she is sick and begs to stay home. We say ok, so only have to worry about number 4 and 6. I get #6 ready and walk her to gan. After I run a few errands at the mall I get that boreka I denied myself earlier in the week. I felt I deserved it for avoiding all of the holiday season donuts so far. I buy some drinks and grape juice for shabbat and head home.
₪50

10:00 am – Get some work done around the house for about an hour and a half before I have to head back to do gan pick up.  

12:00 pm – I  get home and the pre-shabbat countdown begins.  Eldest child is going away, she volunteers for an organization for handicapped kids and they are having an event. Clean up and feed the kids lunch while preparing the meals for shabbat with the wife. I just snack on some pb and crackers.

3:30 pm – Quiet day in all, prepared dinner for tonight, cleaned the living room and set the table.  Signing off until sunday. Shabbat Shalom to all!

Daily Total: ₪50

DAY SIX

5:30 pm – Offline for the past 25 hours for Shabbat.  Pretty standard Shabbat. Went to Shul, played with the kids and ate. We are going to have a lot of guests over the next 6 weeks so we decided to have these few days before that be quiet and low key. Saturday night we did some work for the one day of school this week, ate dinner and got the kids ready for bed. Quiet night.

Daily Total: ₪0

DAY SEVEN

6:30 am – Woke up at 6:00 this morning, wanted to get into work extra early today because I need to leave early since tonight is the first night of Chanukah.  After my morning stretches and push ups and I go downstairs and daven. I skip breakfast and then leave for work in order to catch the earlier bus

7:15 am – Used my last rides on the Rav Kav today, so I will need to reload on the way home.  Got into work quicker than usual despite morning traffic. After all these years in Israel I still wish for Sundays to be a day off…

12:00 pm – I eat an instant pea soup and tuna sandwich for lunch. Definitely not exciting, but did the trick on a boring day in the office.  This day is zooming by and the office is thinning out fast. I think I am going to be the last one here. Everyone is leaving early for Chanukah.

4:30 pm – I call it a day. While I’m not the last one in the office, it sure felt like it.  I close up my work and head to the bus stop. Realizing I had no money left on my Rav Kav, I fill it up at the machine next to the bus stop and am very annoyed that it didn’t print a receipt for me. My accountant is not going to be happy.
₪50 (expensed for work)

5:30 pm – On my way home I get a phone call to pick up a bag of french fries for the 6th grader’s party… so I stop at the mall and pick up a bag of “american style” french fries to bring home.
₪30

6:15 pm – When I get home, we quickly set up the menorah outside and light candles with all the kids who are home (a couple are out at school activities) and then sit down to a nice homemade pizza dinner.

8:15 pm – I head out to Krav Maga class. Usually I walk but this time I had to escort our guest so I ended up taking the bus.  

11:00 pm – After I get home I sit down for some work, realize that I would rather not, so I head up stairs and end my night.  See you tomorrow world

Daily Total: ₪30