Shabbat Shalom and the sidewalks roll up

It is 6:30 p.m. on Friday night and everything is quite. We heard a sound which sounded like the shofar at 5:15 and assumed this marked the beginning of Shabbat and now people are at home enjoying their time with family around a specially prepared meal. Tomorrow is the day they will attend services in the synagogue and all the stores and restaurants will be closed until sundown. When I got home from work at 2:30, I walked through the open market just to be part of the chaos of last minute food shopping - it was like Walmart on the day before Christmas. It was a contrast of Israeli soldiers standing guard with their machine guns and Ultraorthodox Jews in their long black clothing and hats hurrying around to buy freshly baked Challah bread that represents the manna received by the Jews as they wandered through the wilderness and is a part of the Shabbat celebration. We are having our own little Shabbat dinner of 6 strawberries, one orange, a left over piece of pizza (that's all that was in the baby fridge) and something that looks like a challah but has chocolate through it. We hear the local YMCA serves food when everything else is closed so we may look that up tomorrow or perhaps we'll find something in the Old City but then we were warned about buying food there. Next week we will plan better. Work has gone well for us this week - we worked only two days but it was busy. Larry has been with Vern and they have been working on small projects within the homes of the staff. At D & D he is always into more major type projects but they are probably giving him a break this week. You all know how I hate housework - so God let me clean a dirty kitchen this week - cupboards, refrig and freezer, scrub the floors (each day) and next week I get to do the stove and oven - no it is not self clean. It looks really good and I actually had a good time doing it. Today was my first day to solo cook but since it is Friday, the have a left-over, clean out the refrigerator lunch so that was pretty easy. This weekend I'll make up menus for next week and shop on Monday for food. I have learned one person is vegetarian and two don't eat beef so it is good that I have a lot of chicken recipes. I want to try recipes from each one's country for a taste of home. Pictures of my clean kitchen: