It’s April 1, which carries a less-than-fun memory for me, although as the years pass, the pain of April 1, 2016 has been replaced by more optimism and hope that I might have imagined possible. In those five years, I’ve bought a house, changed jobs, gained a second synagogue community and seem to be doing OK.

One challenge for me continues to be a bit of dread about entertaining my two sons when we’re on vacation. I worry that they will be bored, and that I can’t figure out fun stuff to do with them. Those worries tend to be unfounded, and we are in the middle of spending 4 days at the beach in Ocean City, NJ.

This week is a little on the chilly side, with high’s only in the mid-50’s. We drove up Monday afternoon, after Day 2 of Passover services in the morning. The drive took a little over 3 hours, with J asking repeatedly “Are we there yet? How much longer?”. These requests were complicated by the fact that the car clock was set for about 2 hours later than the correct time, because I had some misadventures with adjusting the clock for daylight savings.

We got to the house around 7 pm, and I had to go run to the store for supplies (complicated by the fact that it’s Passover, and so there are lots of restrictions on what we can eat). I had intended to bring the boxes of matzah that we had at home, but, of course, in the rush of getting out, I forgot them. So, I had to buy matzah here, and they were only selling it in cases of 6-1lb boxes of matzah, so now I have more matzah than I could ever eat (and I resist throwing food away, so I’m stuck with a dilemma).

If anyone loves matzah, and would like a box, or two, or four…just let me know!!

So, we had matzah lasagna the first night –

And, the second night, Wednesday – we had an improvised frittata, based on this NYT Cooking recipe, but using the veg that I had on hand (spinach and mushrooms), and the cheese I’d bought (cheddar). It was quite good (although J ate none of it…he satisfied his hunger with the mashed potatoes I made).

Wednesday, during the day, we stayed in essentially all day, as the forecast was predicting rain…the rain came late, so we missed some opportunities for being outdoors. J and I did go out on our bikes, and he was so funny, saying that it was so much better to bike the distance of the boardwalk (all of 2.5 miles) than to walk it. We got back to the house, and settled in to watch “Godzilla vs. Kong” (which was awful!!). But, since J liked it, it was worth it.

Thursday (today), we expected to have better weather, but there was rain for the early part of the day. At about noon, S aroused himself, and we ate some lunch before heading out on our bikes to have a round of mini golf at the Haunted Golf course. S won (I think…he kindly didn’t worry about tallying up the final score).

So, the final meal at the beach?? Trying to use up things I’d bought already, I landed on a tuna casserole recipe, which I swapped out the noodles for moistened matzah. I added cheddar cheese, and basil that i’d bought for the lasagna from two nights ago. We’ll see how it goes over. I’m trying to avoid taking too many groceries and cooked dishes home in the car tomorrow (I’ll have to purchase a cooler, as I didn’t bring one – not the Queen of planning ahead, am I).

As always, S ate with gusto, and J wouldn’t even try it. How that child survives, I do not know!!