Pesach 2012 Wrap-up

It was the first day of Chol Hamoed. I was sitting on a bench, watching my kids practicing their golf swing and contemplating everything that had transpired. I did not know what the date was anymore – I could barely make out what day it was. Pesach was like being on a roundabout and it was spinning rather fast.

I have since compiled notes on this year’s Pesach experience in the hopes that I will be able to reference them the next time I need to.

The Seder nights: At my in-laws’ house, the seder is always beautiful. The first night is always punctual as we try to eat the afikomen by chatzos. It finished at a reasonable hour – for a seder. The second night, there were many more participants and it was extremely late. I could barely keep my eyes open. It was about 3:30AM by the time we got home and we hadn’t even stayed until they finished all the singing. If I can send myself advice for next time, it would be to make our own seder at home for the second night.

What I learned from the entire Pesach-making experience: Don’t try to do it again on my ownwithout cleaning help. It is especially important to have help the week before Pesach when the kitchen needs to be changed over!

At least I can relax at the thought that next time will be easier. We already have the pots and pans, oven and other small appliances nicely packed away in storage. Hopefully that will ease the difficulty of ‘limbo week’ like this first year where the kitchen was finally changed over, but the pots still needed toivelling; the pots were toivelled, but we didn’t yet buy the food processor; something was always holding something back…

Next time should also be cheaper now that we already laid out the initial expense of purchasing the basics.

We ended up buying pots and pans, flatware for fleishigs, mugs for hot drinks, a hot water urn, more mixing bowls than originally anticipated, a stainless steel becher, a matza cover, sharp knives for pareve and dairy (we never found the blue knife I thought we had), table clothes, dish towels, sink inserts, a new EZ filter, new stove knobs, a broom, a dustpan, a countertop oven, a mixer and a food processor.

We saved money (and my sanity) by using disposable plates and cups (I really appreciated having less to wash up) and plastic cutlery for breakfasts and lunches. We also saved where we least expected it. As mentioned previously, we used a gift card obtained by our credit card points for purchasing much of our kitchen basics. We made the order online. The next morning, I happened to check back on the store’s website and discovered that one of the pots sets was now on sale! I called up customer service after realizing that three of the items on my invoice were now less expensive. It was a modest amount, something like $30 difference, which I was calling about, but I wanted a price adjustment. Well, to my amazement, not only did I get an adjustment, the customer service representative refunded the ENTIRE cost of those three items! These were not cheap items. (One was the counter-top oven!) Wow.

All in all, the experience of making Pesach leaves me with a much greater appreciation for moving into our parents’ place for the holiday. (BTW, I get first dibs on going to my parents’ house for next year.)

Things I do not need to buy the next time I make Pesach:

1-Potato starch. (I have almost 3 full containers left out of the 4 I bought. Hey, it was on sale for cheap!)

2- Less plastic cutlery (no need for soup spoons. Buy a much smaller pack of knives.)

3-Sticky contact paper. (It is such a pain to change and also to lay down neatly on shelves.)

What else I learned: Do not switch on the Shabbos button on the hot water urn for Yom Tov. (The water was already cold by the first day of Yom Tov morning.)

What we’ll need to buy:

- New plastic boards and heavy foil for covering the counter tops (DH made the kids a clubhouse out of the used plastic board).

- Dishes if we’re going to be home for a seder meal.

- Glasses or goblets? (Same reason as dishes.)

To remember: My milchig pots set is all pareve expect for the frying pan and spatula. I cooked the gefilte fish in the big pot and the eggs in the middle-sized pot.

Food notes: My husband ended up bringing home 5 lbs. of matza. Add that to my 2 lbs. and we had just a little too much. We left 2 lbs. at my in-laws’ when we were eating there. Of the remaining boxes, we opened up 3 lbs. The last 2 lb. box was never even opened.

We had lots of grapefruits and the kids loved them. We went through almost the entire case of grape juice. Next time we have to buy more orange juice because we ran out in the middle and had to buy more.

DH made two very large jars of chrain, one of which we left at his parents’. It tasted just like store-bought!

We went through much of the case of eggs that DH brought home.

We used ¼ of a sack of potatoes (we gave away half the sack.)

I did not need baking powder. I was unable to make some yummy-looking cookie and cupcake recipes from magazines due to too many missing ingredients (next time check the recipe BEFORE shopping!)

I made five cakes; one sponge and four chocolate. My daughter lived on the chocolate cake.

My husband made two batches of his heavenly Rosemarie cookies. (I wish I wasn’t allergic to Rosemarie. Oh well, more for him!)

For the last days of yom tov, I made a potato kugel that no one touched. (I made it very lateErev Yom Tov. It should have been prepared earlier and would have been gone like the kugel I made Erev Pesach that was a major hit, but I had to sit in the pediatrician’s waiting room all morning because my daughter caught strep. At least DH helped me cook when I got back. He made a beet salad and a cucumber salad. I think he thought he was making it for a larger family because we still have lots leftover! He also helped with the chicken, fish and soup.

More food notes:

No one really touched the apple compote except for me. Next time, make less.

The vegetable soup was not a hit. (Why can’t I get my kids to like vegetable soup?)

The boys LOVED the Pesach egg noodles DH made for the chicken soup.

These were the Chol Hamoed suppers that everyone enjoyed:

-Oven-baked salmon with mashed potatoes and cucumber salad.

-Meat broiled with onions and spiced-baked potatoes.

-Chicken cutlets fried with potato starch and eggs with mashed potatoes garnished with scallions.

The trips we went on this year:

Monday: Practice golf and Floyd Bennet’s Field for kite flying

Tuesday: 18^th Avenue Park, not as exciting as the Washington, DC or Williamsburg, VA trips some of my s-i-l’s invited us on, but we needed to stay local so we could be home for an important call. (As Murphy’s Law would have it, the call never came.)

Wednesday: Manhattan to the Museum of Natural History and Central Park.

Now that this project has been completed, I can report that I am so happy to have been able to stay home for Pesach this year! I learned a lot. Next time it can only get easier.

L’Shana Habbah b’Yerushalayim!

Reaching Bedikas Chometz

By now, things have finally calmed down somewhat. I can definitely breathe easier. I spent last night reading through all the entries from My Pesach Diary blog and was amazed at how the Pesach preparations train started off at such a slow pace, chugging along calmly until it picked up the pace and went faster and faster until it was the Orient Express!

The last week before Pesach was very hard. My bedtime was in the AM hours each night. The days merged into each other and I barely knew what day it was anymore.

Motzai Shabbos, I started attempting to change over my kitchen. My plan had been to start cooking by Monday. My husband looked around the kitchen and said there was no way I was going to be ready to change over that soon. I was not in the mood of his skepticism. What did I know? I’d never done this before! I really did not know what I was doing. I was afraid to ask him for help because he had been very adamant about not doing any actual cleaning because as far as he was concerned, I should have gotten a cleaning lady. As the hours went by, I felt like I was actually in Mitzrayim with all the slave labor, scrubbing the stove top and the oven, scrubbing the walls and whatever else needed to be cleaned. I cried bitter tears. I finally caved in and begged for help. Once there were two of us working, everything started taking shape much sooner. I was so grateful that I had cleaned out the fridge on Thursday. Still, Sunday arrived and the kitchen was not changed over.

I took the kids to the corner grocery store for some lunch and we ate it in the park. They enjoyed running around. My husband had to work really late. Sunday was kind of a disaster with regards to supper because by the time I got the kids out to the nearby Kosher Chinese restaurant, there were no tables left and a thirty minute wait. I was not in the mood of the pizza store. I was worn down and turned around straight home. We really did not have anything normal to eat, but I found them something in the house. I got everyone to bed and got to work. DH came home with hot shwarma sandwiches that the two of us ate carefully. One good benefit of not having yet changed over… He moved out the fridge and the stove and it was remarkable how much chometz had taken shelter beneath those appliances!

Monday was my daughter’s final day in playgroup before the vacation. I could choose to stay home and clean more or I could take a break and hop on the train to buy some makeup that I was out of. The alternative was to ride the train the next day with my daughter in her stroller. Was that really a choice? I went Monday. I took along a notebook and put together some lists on the train. (What to buy. What to do.) 34^th Street, Herald Square, here I come! It was good to relax a little after working so hard.

Although I had been hoping to be able to cook a normal Pesach supper Monday, the kitchen was in no way ready for that. DH came home earlier this time and we enjoyed takeout from the Chinese place we missed out on the night before. Yum!

Monday night, I stayed up late and DH stayed up later. I tried to help in whichever way I could, but my husband knew so much more about koshering a kitchen for Pesach than I did. I watched with interest to learn what I might. Still, I could barely function, feeling so wiped out from the last three very late nights, that I left him to his own devices.

The kids were amazed to enter the kitchen the next morning. Everything was covered in white like the first snow of the winter. The countertops were hidden behind thick white plastic boards, the table was covered in a thick white plastic sheet and the cupboards that were not being used for Pesach were taped shut. The stovetop was covered in foil, as was the faucet and knobs. The sink was concealed by white plastic inserts.

I felt like we had finally crossed the threshold, even though there was still much work to be done. We were finally on the other side. The kitchen was changed over!

I had bought a box of non-gebrocks Pesach cereal for this week. It was some sort of chocolate flavored cheerios. The kids tasted it and nearly gagged.

Tuesday morning, I cleaned out the coat closet. I found a pretzel and some chocolate rum balls among a marble and some other toys. Today was the day I was to cook my first Pesach supper! First, I had to take the pot and stirring utensil to toivel. We had boxes of things to be toiveled, but I could not schlepp that much without a car. DH would do that in the evening, after work. For now, I just had to toivel what I needed for the day so supper would be ready at a normal hour. Still, I was missing a lot of things. I took my daughter to Amazing Savings to buy some items we needed for Pesach. She fell in love with a pink frilly umbrella. Definitely not a Pesach item, but I decided to buy it to put it away for a prize she could earn. She threw a tantrum that lasted half an hour. She refused to eat lunch. Since deadlines were looming, I had to speak to the accountant since we had to take care of some papers. I ignored my toddler and locked myself into the office to call him back. I used the computer a bit while I was there. By the time I came out, she was no longer crying. The lunch that had been on her place at the kitchen table was eaten. She was playing with her toys. I was amazed.

I spent the afternoon washing the dining room table and chairs. It took two hours. I’m still not sure how it’s possible for such a job to take so long, but I’m not one to question it.

Time to cook the first Pesach food! Alas, nothing is ever so simple. I’d asked DH to take down our Pesach knife and peeler from the storage closet that I could not reach. He forgot. I had to wait until he came home before I could cook. We had a late supper. Meat and potatoes. It was still delicious.

At least by Wednesday, our new above-the-counter Pesach oven was ready to be used. The boys had only a half day of school. I was rushing, trying to get as much done as possible before they arrived. I washed the floors and cleaned the normal weekly necessities. I knew that by the time everyone would be home, this would be a next-to-impossible feat.

I attempted to bake my first Pesach cake with the kids in the kitchen. It probably took twice as long, but I insisted they could only watch and not touch. I made the easiest Pesach cake ever, a simple chocolate cake recipe that does not require separating the eggs. It came out scrumptious.

I made mashed potatoes and fried gefilte fish balls for supper, with a cucumber salad. At least it was earlier than the night before! Progress.

Wednesday night, I still had the kitchen garbage cans to clean. (With recycling, we have three in total.) Somehow, it felt like the work was never going to end! The laundry load just would not shrink, no matter how much time I devoted to it. The usual story…

Thursday morning, I felt like I was not getting very much done. Fortunately, DH took the day off and left on some errands with the boys. Yes, I ironed all the boys white shirts (that I’d neglected these past few weeks. Yes, I changed all the linens and washed more laundry. I found a lot of crumbs in my daughter’s bed.

That afternoon, I lay down for a nap and, two hours later, I still could not get up. I was exhausted. I still had flatware sitting in the sink from the day before when it had been toiveledand did not want to think about it. I still had to go over the strollers which had been vacuumed once, but needed a second go-over. There were plenty of things that had not been done – although most of these were not very important on my priority list. Some would classify these as ‘spring cleaning’. These were not going to get done before Pesach 2012…too bad.

Supper was not made and I had no strength left. I called up DH and suggested we go out to eat. That is how we enjoyed our last chometzdik meal before Pesach. My seven-year-old son who is the world’s pickiest eater polished off his entire burger and fries. I could not believe it. I had a hot pastrami sub. The protein helped restart my batteries. Tonight was Bedikas Chometz! I cleaned out my purse. (I’d bought a new purse this winter and saved it for Pesach. I just had to transfer the contents and throw the old, fraying one out.)

Could our vacuum cleaner have picked a better time to break? There was so much to be vacuumed before bedikas chometz. What were we going to do? We had just replaced our vacuum some two years ago when our first one was finished. Vacuum number two had been bought using points. (I’m telling you, It pays to use credit cards!)

I looked at the time. It was eight. The store was open until nine. We still had ample gift cards left from our credit card points. My husband ran out. He got our third vacuum with a five year warranty. The house was vacuumed. The strollers were vacuumed. Whatever else needed was, too. We could now do bedikas chometz. We could barely believe we had come to this point!

Progress Report (Sans Cleaning Help)

Wednesday: I skipped the supermarket today because I wanted to clean out my freezer first. I turned up the music and got to work. It felt invigorating to accomplish this task. Seriously, you know how people get high from doing exercise? I’m sure the same can be said from cleaning.

I ran to the hardware store for some contact paper. I cleaned out three cabinets and got busy lining them. UPS delivered my hand mixer and fleishig pots and pans set (all bought with points.)

I had to cook supper since there were not enough leftovers from the previous day. We ate on plastic plates, as we have been all week to save me the time that would have been otherwise spent dishwashing.

After supper, when the kids were in bed, I really schlepped out the work. Took a break here, some online shopping, took a break there, read a magazine article, checked my email, made some phone calls… It was close to midnight by the time I was done, but the next morning, there were three empty cupboards all washed and lined for Pesach.

Thursday: I hit the supermarket. I bought a new broom and some Pesach food for the kids to eat during ‘limbo’ week after Shabbos HaGadol when we have no chometz left in the house but it’s not yet Pesach so we can’t eat matzo yet. I also bought meat and chicken and lots of Pesach necessities. I bought two pounds of matzo on sale for $20. (I figured it was a good price because other brands were going for that much for only one pound. When I had my husband on the line to discuss which matzo to buy, he was like, “What do they put in them, gold?”)

I had my purchase delivered but had to carry the matzo and the broom home. I was not planning on this. I thought I’d be able to do another errand on the way home, but not with my hands so full. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.

I started cleaning out the fridge before my order arrived. It took hours to finish. One part is actually still not completed, but I’ll do it tonight when the kids are in bed.

I saw a ‘cleaning lady wanted’ ad for $10/hour. Wow. I used to work in an office for that amount, when I was a girl. I don’t think I’d make a good ‘cleaning lady’ for $10/hour…or any amount. I work too slowly (with all my breaks) pacing my energy. That doesn’t stop me from telling the kids not to disturb the ‘cleaning lady’ when I’m trying to get something cleaned at home!

I’d shared my kitchen progress with my sister-in-law on the phone, two days ago. Despite my little accomplishments, she admitted to having done even less than me. I felt so good, like I was ‘ahead of the game’. Then, when I spoke to her yesterday, inquiring where she was holding, she said she was almost finished her kitchen! I was amazed. How was it possible? To go almost from zero to a hundred in one day?!? Then, I figured it out. “You must have had a cleaning lady,” I declared.

“Yes, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without one.”

Whenever I broach the subject of Pesach cleaning, my husband has been suggesting I get a cleaning lady. I always decline. I don’t have regular cleaning help. I always considered a cleaning woman a luxury. I have always been very independent when it comes to housework. Without having a history with anyone that I could trust them, I prefer not to hire some stranger to go through my house. (I hear too many stories of people being robbed by the cleaning help.) I also know too many women who are beside themselves because their cleaning woman fails to show up, or because she quit, or is not going a good job and they need to find someone new. I don’t want to be at the mercy of some cleaning help like the stranded victims so many women turn into. I never took ‘Acquiring and Maintaining Cleaning Help 101’ and would be clueless about bossing around some Spanish speaking immigrant.

So, yes, I am a freak. An oddity. Either, I’m incredibly brave to undertake Pesach-cleaning my home on my own, or I’m incredibly naïve. In any event, it takes me much longer to Pesach-clean than people who rely on cleaning help. Which makes a lot of sense.

I recently met someone who was just like me; she cleaned her house herself. She claimed she hated cleaning women. She used to have one, but found that she did a better job herself.

Even that woman who goes about her daily life without cleaning help admits she needs to get some for Pesach-cleaning. Then again, she works a daily job. I don’t. I have all the time in the world to clean, at my own pace, without wearing myself ragged.

I prefer to splurge on buying myself gifts on occasion rather than splurge on cleaning help that the kids will nullify the very same day. A jewel encrusted fashion accessory or new pair of shoes will last longer!

I have four cabinets and two drawers left in the kitchen. The rest of the list from my previous post, also remains. I forgot to add the garbage cans to the list.

Today FedEx delivered my electric burners. Now my husband is talking about returning them and kashering the stovetop instead – now that he figured out how to do it. I said, “If you want to do it, go ahead!”

The Pesach Countdown Is On

Like so many other Jewish women out there, I am working every day on Pesach cleaning. I feel like I’m not getting anywhere, but I know it all adds up. Yes, the house looks like a mess when there’s work-in-progress, but it’s the final product that counts. Besides, a masterpiece is in the details. It bothers me when people are tough on others who are tough on themselves with Pesach preparations. Everyone has their standards and what they adhere to. For some people, it’s good enough to just cover over and lock up anything chometz-related. For others, they first go through everything with a toothpick and a magnifying glass. (Maybe I’m exaggerating about the latter, but I wouldn’t be surprised…) I would say I’m somewhere in the middle. I’m not as strict and overboard as some, I’m not as lax as others. I wish everyone would respect the fact that everyone does their best and not judge others by your own (as opposed to their own) standards.

Here’s the Pesach diary since I last posted:

Wednesday: I did more Pesach shopping. I bought some rolls of shelf liners and Pesachdik snacks for the kids so they’ll have what to eat in case their cheder makes a ‘no chometz’ rule a week before school is out for the holiday. Even if they don’t, the kids will need something to eat in the house once my kitchen is turned over before yom tov starts. I also stocked up on more sale items at the KRM. (Plastic utensils were $1.99 for 500!) I did a sliver of shopping on Thirteenth Ave before heading home.

Thursday: I got to work in the living room. I cleaned the couch and recliner. (I found three socks in the recliner.) I started doing some toy bins and the toy kitchen until I thought, ‘This is taking up so much time, am I crazy? The kids should do this!’ Later, I gave some bins to the kids to wash when they were bathed and they had a veritable blast. I also washed stuffed animals in the washing machine. I ordered some pots and pans and Pesach necessities online (using points). Wondering, why isn’t my horrible cold getting better?

Friday: No Pesach cleaning today! Stopped in by the doctor. It’s a sinus infection. Picked up antibiotics and arrived home in time to cook half of what I had to cook for Shabbos. Ran out to pick up the kids from playgroup/bus stop. Fed kids lunch. Made a kugel and whatever else wasn’t done. Cleaned up kitchen mess. Mopped floor.

Motzai Shabbos: After cleaning up from Shabbos, I washed out the bottom half of the china closet. (The top half I did before Chanukah. I only plan to take out the actual chometz from the top before Pesach – no ‘spring cleaning’ (Riva, that’s for you) unless I have the time.)

This week, I started with the kitchen. I plan on going back to the rest of the house once the kitchen is done and all the chometz is out. It seems futile to do anything else while the kids still keep spreading chometz around.

Sunday: Very busy with laundry but managed to get two kitchen cabinets emptied out. Kids spilled out an almost brand-new bottle of Soft Scrub. Supper was leftovers from Shabbos.

Monday: Finished lining the second kitchen cabinet. Opened a new roll of shelving paper. Started with drawers. Did two in the morning. UPS delivery! Toaster oven and milchig pots/pans set arrived. After school, kids got their hands on the new roll of shelf paper and unrolled it across the house. They marched on it like they were walking down a red carpet. At least I still had a spare roll. Had to police the kids not to take food out of the kitchen. After kids’ bedtime, I did two more kitchen drawers. This included the terrible forsaken ‘junk drawer’ that had not been touched (in the cleaning sense) in years. (Don’t call it spring cleaning, there were countless crumbs at the bottom of it!) Still busy with laundry. At least I didn’t have to cook, supper was leftovers from the freezer.

Tuesday: Washed Kitchenaid mixer and the cabinet that contained the baking utensils. Washed the contents of the pareve drawer that was emptied the night before. Made delicious supper of potato/mushroom knishes from package of dough I found in the freezer and chicken cutlets. (Hope to have enough leftovers for tomorrow.) Found half a chicken cutlet on the toy kitchen. After kids were in bed, I washed out two more cabinets.

My kitchen tally:

There are 8 cabinets on one side; 3 are done.

Of the 4 cabinets on the other side; 2 are done.

Of the 6 drawers in total; 4 are done.

That means 9/18 is done! Making progress.

What remains to do in the kitchen: toaster, toaster oven, fridge, freezer, microwave, stove, oven, table, chairs, counters and sink.

I would love to have the kitchen changed over by Sunday.

Life Goes On

Now is when the real Pesach-cleaning frenzy begins. The time has come to get serious. No more excuses. No more procrastinating. No more ‘too busy’ doing anything but cleaning.

I am seriously not a role model.

Last week, with my brother’s wedding, I did not dream of doing anything Pesach related. The closest I came was buying some Pesach specials at the supermarket. They are now stored in sealed boxes in my apartment.

This week was only slightly better. I will get to my little accomplishments later.

So how was the wedding? Thankfully, it was beautiful. Most everything went off without a hitch, although we did not arrive in time for the photographer to take our family pictures before thekabbalos panim. (Fortunately, he took some later.) Some deadlines are okay to miss. Other deadlines, like Pesach, are non-negotiable.

We stayed overnight at the Hampton Inn in Nanuet. (Who wants to drive home to Brooklyn at 2 AM?) My kids and husband enjoyed the pool the next morning, which we had entirely to ourselves – a major treat. (I sat on the sidelines and fleetingly wished I owned a bathing suit.) After checkout, we picked up lunch and then hung out at my sister’s place. The kids had a ball running around her large backyard. We stayed for sheva brachos and arrived back home very late at night.

The kids missed their bus the next morning and although my husband drove them to school, I felt like my day was pretty much shot. By the time I returned from dropping off my daughter, the morning was half over. I was faced with mountains and mountains of laundry to attend to. (That’s what happens after a wedding when a mother does not wash any loads for two entire days.)

I was grateful to skip sheva brachos Thursday night. My husband had to work late and I was on my own with all the childcare. I gave supper and bathed the kids. My husband walked in just as the younger two were getting into their beds. It was past their bedtime and no one was asleep. Naturally, I was pooped. I would have gladly exchanged places with them! The little kids complained that they were hungry but, mean mother that I am; I refused to allow them to come out for snacks when it was so late. (They need to learn to eat their suppers!) I went to take care of some work on the computer. My husband came and said, “The kids are having a chometz party in their room.” Someone had pilfered a box of crackers from the kitchen cabinet and they were having a field day with it.

Just lovely.

So much for a Pesach-cleaned room…

The truth is, I anyway had to re-vacuum and change the linen in the room before Pesach. So I wasn’t very bothered about the mess. I was more bothered by the fact that the kids still don’t get the concept of not bringing chometz into their room!

We found places for my boys to stay over Shabbos and travelled back over the George Washington Bridge with only my daughter for the Shabbos sheva brachos. Friday was for packing and picking up some Pesach cases for my mother (and myself). We were back late Motzai Shabbos after picking up the boys who had a really good time at their respective sleepovers. It was a nice vacation not to have to cook and clean up dishes…

On the Palisades Parkway, during the ride home, I tried figuring out my Pesach cleaning game plan. I wanted to start on the kitchen, to empty out all the drawers and cupboards and forget – I mean worry – about everything else later. (Though forgetting would be more enjoyable.)

I was not at all ready to start with the kitchen.

My husband suggested I get a cleaning lady. I declined.

Sunday found me with more loads of laundry to tackle. I decided to clean out the broom/cleaning supplies closet. Yay, another closet done! I also cleaned a lot of my kitchen, but it was more of an everyday cleaning instead of a Pesach cleaning. Of course you have to start somewhere. I still had junk from mishlaoch manos on the counters…

There was no way I could go to Sunday night’s sheva brachos. I had no possibility of getting there with my husband working late again and you know what, I was glad for the reprieve. I figured that we were done with all the travelling to Monsey for sheva brachos. Not exactly…

You would think that my plan for Monday would be to tackle some major Pesach-cleaning project. No. It was something much worse than that. I had to take care of paperwork. There is a tiny room in my apartment that is used as an office. I was busy at work with file folders and spreadsheets doing my least favorite task – figuring out numbers for the accountant for tax season. I also took the opportunity to file away a mountain of papers. I did what I could, but I’m still not entirely finished with all the paperwork.

I found out that Monday evening’s sheva brachos was not in Monsey. It was in a restaurant in Teaneck! I have never been to Teaneck. I wanted to go check it out. Teaneck is a lot closer to Brooklyn than Monsey. We managed to get a babysitter and off we went. It was almost like going on a date since it was just the two of us in the car!

Today was my first actual day back to regular life. I asked my husband where he thought I should begin. He preferred the little office room. I did, if I may say so myself, a really good job. I enjoyed the cleaning even if I did have some harrowing experiences. (That’s usually the case when you turn up a dead bug.) I had a scare trying to clean the windows. (I never knew they were broken. No wonder we never opened them!) The top window shot down with a slam, I almost had my hand stuck in it. Oh, the joys of Pesach cleaning…

Empty Closets

It has begun. The insanity. The fatigue. The husband working very late hours. The running around and around, almost in circles. The kids who won’t go to bed before nine pm because their father is not home. The house looking like a wreck because of aforementioned kids who won’t go to bed and a mother too tired by the time they finally do.

To further compound the situation, I have been running to appointments all week with my three-year-old daughter who is finally undergoing a speech evaluation because even the barely two-year-olds in her playgroup can speak mountains more than she can. At her speech evaluation, the evaluator agreed that she could definitely use speech therapy. She failed her hearing test because she has fluid in one ear and refused to cooperate in the sound room. So, instead of staying home to clean for Shabbos today, I was at the pediatrician about the fluid. (He does not think it’s anything to be concerned about at this time of the year.) By the time I got home and had a chicken soup cooking on the stove, it was time for lunch.

I forgot to mention, I was just at the pediatrician with my daughter yesterday for a WIC blood test. I just realized the next WIC appointment was scheduled for the morning after my brother’s wedding, at 9:15 AM. (I hurriedly changed the date.) At the doctor’s two days in a row, I feel like I should start moving in…

My brother’s wedding is drawing near. I have been running to the dressmaker and the fabric store and the costume stores. (Purim is a few days before the wedding!) I made appointments at the sheitel macher and the makeup artist. I ordered new yarmulkes and suits for the boys. I hope everything will be ready in time. I am praying that the dressmaker will not ruin my gown. (For the small fortune she’s charging for minor alterations, it better come out perfect!) I have to pick up the little girl gowns from the gemach this Sunday. The expenses are really piling up – and I haven’t bought a thing yet for Pesach… (Unless you count the case of plastic plates that was on sale this week at the KRM supermarket!)

My mishalach manos are sitting in a box, waiting to be put together. My birthday is this week. I wonder if DH will remember. (I sent him some hints a month or so ago by email, of gift ideas I’d love for him to buy me.) I found no evidence that he bought any of it. Instead, he bought a really expensive digital camera that he wanted. Men – go figure.

The one Pesach cleaning mountain I managed to tackle this week was my linen closet. I devoted the good part of my Monday morning to it. If there was ever any closet that intimidated me with its sheer multitude of stuff, the linen closet was it. I was worried I would get swept away by the avalanche. I needed to devise a method to the madness.

You will see a picture of my empty linen closet. (I took the image with DH’s new, top-of-the-line camera.) How did I empty out a closet that was so thoroughly packed? The only way possible; one shelf at a time. I put everything on the hallway floor or in the bedroom to organize. I washed the shelves and the floor. I actually found chometz! I never would have believed I’d find some in the linen closet, but apparently, I did. It was a licorice nib, covered in dust at the bottom corner of the closet. I also found a marble from my kids’ marble run game. I found a pair of pink socks that fit my daughter when she was a year old (now how did those get in there!?!)

I rearranged the contents so the linen is now on a lower shelf and the first aid box and related medicine chest/bathroom storage items are now easier to reach. (My linen closet is right outside the bathroom, the latter of which has minimal storage space.) Less often used items are now on the highest shelf. The towels are all nicely rolled and easier to see. I made room for the case of Bounty paper towels that I bought last week on sale. It is such a pleasure to open the closet door and be struck by the sight of an organized closet!

I love an empty closet, the shelves bare and inviting yet full of promise. It is like a new chapter, a notebook waiting to be filled with handwritten prose. It reminds me of days gone by when I was a newlywed, when I had countless empty drawers and closets and everything was a whole new adventure. It was a time when the possibilities were endless. Anything was possible! Almost nine years and three kids later, the days of empty closets are rare.

Thank G-d.

Go With The Flow

Housewives have started talking about Pesach. Everyone has a different method to the madness. Some strategies applied are the Last Minuters (starting with the kitchen and then doing everything else) who usually begin no more than a week or so before the holiday; the more common One-Room-At-A-Timers (who spend a few days per room until it is done before moving on to the next) and usually begin immediately after Purim; and the crazy people who start right after Chanukah and have everything done by Tu B’Shvat in time to start it all over again.

I had forgotten how uplifting the feeling of exhilaration was. It had been such a while since I experienced the sense of accomplishment that accompanied the simple act of crossing a chore of my mental Pesach-cleaning list! It was unexpected. Unanticipated. Unusual. Okay, enough with the un-words…

The honest truth is that I had not exactly planned to do any Pesach cleaning today. Just as yesterday, I had not planned on going on a Flatbush shopping expedition along Coney Island Avenue between J and K. Sometimes, you just have to go with the flow. I had an early morning date booked with my husband in Boro Park, but that was all – I thought I would come home and Pesach clean. Instead, I managed to get a rare ride into Flatbush and seized the Monday morning opportunity to finally take care of some errands that were on my C.I. Avenue to-do list. I found a new shell to wear under the jumper gown I had bought for my brother’s wedding. (The original shell I bought last week did not work out, the fit was just wrong for a gown. It was returned.) I also stocked up on shells for the summer and picked up a new Shabbos robe for Pesach. The best part is that almost everything I found was on sale!

Fast forward to today. The one thing that was booked for this morning was my daughter’s birthday party in playgroup. (It really should have been yesterday when it her actual birth date, but there was that pre-existing booking on my calendar. Besides, she was not going to know the difference if the party was a day later.) I packed the bag of peckelach (nosh bags) and we made it to playgroup just in time for the party at 10 AM. It was so cute to watch the kids singing happy birthday and dancing around in a train. I sat next to the birthday girl and enjoyed the proceedings. Their teacher had taught them the birthday routine well (it also helped that they just had another party yesterday) and it was heartwarming to hear the little ones wish “Asach yiddishe nachas,” at the end of the party when they thanked me for coming.

When it was over, I was surprised to note that it was still early in the morning. I stopped off at the pediatrician for a paper that needed filling out and then weighed my options. There was the possibility of visiting the Purim stores to find some costumes and items for my m’shalach manos. Or, I could just go home and tackle another Pesach job…

You know which one I chose!

(The deciding factor was my plan on being in the vicinity of the Purim stores tomorrow after doing my weekly grocery shopping. It’s always good to group errands together when you go out so you save time and don’t have to go out so often for every little thing. When you don’t have a car at your disposal, you really feel every outing. It also helps you stay in shape, but I digress.)

I had mentioned some of my Pesach to-do list in my last post (and of course a bunch of things popped into my head afterwards that I forgot to list). Well, the one task that most appealed to me today was to tackle the arts ‘n crafts closet. As I emptied it out and washed each shelf, I was surprised at what not-a-big-deal this job was! (In my mind, somehow each job majestically receives extra grandeur that leaves me thinking that something which might take maximally an hour ends up taking all day!) Getting everything organized was much easier than I thought. I put all the rolls of curling ribbon on a higher shelf (too many memories of my kids making a ‘spider’s web’ through the house with them) and kept the colored pencils and crayons on a lower, more child-accessible shelf to promote creativity. (I hope I will not be sorry about this move.) I managed to throw out things (yay!) which is always an achievement for me – the major saver that I am. I even threw out my classmates’ wedding invitations that I had been keeping until now, some for over ten years. Don’t ask me for what. I mean, I have not seen some of those people in years! The box containing the user manual of my first digital camera – goodbye! It feels so great to chuck things you no longer need.

Or maybe you never really needed in the first place…

But like I said, I’m a saver. The ironic thing is that when I actually need the warranty papers or a phone number for customer service, I can never find them! So why am I keeping so many of the instructions that come with products?

Good question.

The cherry on top with today’s fait accompli is that I found a toddler lock to tie the closet doors shut. Hopefully this will help my nice clean closet stay that way for longer!

When I was done with the closet, it was time for lunch. I cooked meatballs for supper and then saved another trip by renewing what was due at the library online. I took a nap and then hurried to pick up my daughter from playgroup in order to get home in time for my son’s van. (Rush, rush, rush…) At least some of my Pesach-cleaning quota was filled for the day, today, so I am very glad about that.

Maybe my dream of staying home for Pesach can become a reality after all.

Busy With Everything – But Pesach

Slacking off. That is the phrase I would use to describe how I relate to my Pesach cleaning project lately.

I knew the family wedding scheduled a month before Pesach would throw me for a curve, and I was right. My hours have been consumed with running around looking for gowns and other wedding-related accessories. It takes time to find things, to decide where to get my sheitel styled and my makeup done for the big day. I ran around to countless gemachs and ultimately ordered a gown for myself online that needs to be taken to a seamstress for alterations. My daughter and nieces will have matching gowns.

Purim is another loop that has snatched me away. I am usually so Purim-prepared, but this year I feel so behind. One year, I had bought the base for my m’shaloch manos already by Succos time. I have also put together some very cute and shticky things in the past. This year, I still have not finalized how I will package everything. I have yet to buy my daughter’s princess costume. (My sons are letting me get away easy this year, they want to be the secret service – suits with earpieces and walky-talkies.)

Then there is the matter of timing. I feel it is too early to clean certain objects that are still being used and will still get chometzdik, i.e. the toys. Just last week, my husband exited the children’s room with a chocolate chip cookie he’d discovered. He held it up triumphantly and teased, “There’s no chometz in the kids' room!” I think my two-year-old is not getting the message about keeping food in the kitchen.

Since my last major cleaning endeavor, I did maybe a closet or two and some light spring cleaning in the bathroom medicine chest. It feels like I’m not getting anywhere! There is still so much that I can be doing now. For starters: The arts ‘n crafts closet, the linen closet, the coat closet, the seforim shank, the office, the couch.

Oh, let me not forget preparing the papers for the taxes.

In health matters, it seems I am constantly rundown with a cold this entire winter. Maybe I get one as soon as the previous one leaves, who knows? I had a stomach bug that kept me out of commission one whole day, so I definitely lost some ground there. I still stay up much too late and wonder why I have no energy the next day, my usual problems…

So these are my struggles. How will I find the time and energy to near the Pesach-cleaning finish line when there is so much else going on?

Shopping List

Oh, what fun it is to waltz through stores on a shopping mission! The knowledge that you have to come home with certain items is a contrasting feeling to the leisurely browsing or window shopping I normally love to do. Shopping for Pesach is a whole new take on exercising one’s purchasing power. As most holiday shopping goes, the closer you get to the deadline, the more frenzied and panicked the shoppers get. Try walking through the KRM supermarket the weeks before Pesach! In the spirit of remaining calm and not overspending on what boils down to pretty much one week’s worth of camping out in one’s own kitchen, I have compiled a list of what I think I’ll need to buy for my first Pesach in my own home.

(Keep in mind that living in a two-bedroom Brooklyn apartment as I do, there isn’t exactly much storage space for hiding away Pesach wares year round. I am trying to get away with buying only what I deem absolutely necessary for this year so that I won’t be stuck with boxes of Pesach goods that I have nowhere to store. Don’t forget, there will always be other years to add more to the collection. Hopefully by then, we’ll be living in a bigger house too.)

Thus said, I am not planning to buy two sets of dishes and silverware – everything but the kitchen sink. I am only planning to buy absolute requirements and use disposable paper goods for everything else. Milchig dishes? Disposable. Cups? Disposable. Mugs for hot drinks? Styrofoam (with apologies to the environment.) Cutlery? Disposable. You get the idea. We already have a set each of a milchig and fleishig sharp knife and potato peeler from a previous Pesach when we brought the items to my parents’ house because my husband did not like their peelers or blunt knives when he helped with the cooking. So, for dairy, all we will need to get is one frying pan and a spatula. That is all.

(We happened to have won a brand new frying pan recently that I put away for Pesach. So we just need a spatula…and paper goods for milchig’s. That’s all.)

For fleishigs, we will definitely need a bit more than that. Pots and pans and silverware. I’m debating over real dishes or paper goods.

When it comes to pareve, there are some things that are necessities like mixing bowls and spoons; a mixer (most likely handheld); a hot water urn; and other things that I’m not sure how necessary they’ll be this year (say, a food processor) but would be useful if they were here.

Then there’s the need for rolls of foil and plastic sheets for covering up the countertops, sink inserts, fridge inserts, (oven inserts?) rolls of paper to line tables and cupboards and contact paper to line drawers. I have no idea how much I’ll need of all this. I do know that the rolls of contact paper I bought last year were not enough for all the cupboards in my kitchen.

Am I forgetting anything? I definitely feel as if I am.

Okay, deep breath.

Somehow everyone reaches the finish line.

Kitchen Kashering Quandaries

I was thinking ahead, trying to figure out exactly what I would need to do to get my kitchen kosher for Pesach. Since I never did this before from start to finish, I have almost no idea what I am doing. I asked my husband for some guidance. I think I should have asked someone else.

“How would I kasher the stove?” I wondered. “Do I need to buy new burners?”

He wouldn’t give me a clear-cut answer. Instead he just suggested we get a small electric burner and not use the stove. I did not like the idea of cooking on two little burners if I have a lot to cook. I still wanted to know how I could kasher my stove.

I had to dig for the information. Finally he conceded that either we could go somewhere to kasher the burners or buy another set of burners special for Pesach.

Then he said I cannot kasher my oven. The self-cleaning feature on my oven has not worked at all from the time we moved into this apartment. “Why can’t I just cover the inside of the oven with foil?” I asked.

“It’s complicated. The oven has to first be really, really hot.”

My beautiful Pesach kugels and cakes went poof in a cloud of smoke.

“Or I could buy a toaster oven that’s big enough to bake 9X13 inch pans,” I suggested. He didn’t seem so enthusiastic about that idea.

(Someone else later told me about oven inserts that people can use if their oven does not self-clean.) When I mentioned this to DH, he said, "It's not that simple."

I wanted to know what I should get to cover the counter tops with. I just wanted to have a general outline to facilitate my mental list of everything that I had to get done.

The feeling I got from asking DH any of my questions was, to paraphrase, ‘you don’t need to cook or bake or make Pesach at all’ but rather, take the easy way out. Go to the parents’ for the entire Pesach. The usual old copout

I adamantly refused.

I have had enough of the old story that results in my moving out of my home for Pesach year after year. I feel that it’s long overdue that I begin a new chapter called Making Pesach and Staying Home.

Why couldn’t he understand? To me, there’s no alternative. I was very stubborn. I held my ground.

As it is, I knew that he does not want to make any Pesach seder this year on his own. Fine, I can understand that. We will go to his parents for the sederim. They live within walking distance. I personally would not mind staying home for at least one seder but I guess it’s okay to start with baby steps and not jump in all at once.

Furthermore, my husband would like to eat most, if not all, the yom tov meals at his parents’ house. Okay, I’ll go along with that. My mother-in-law is a phenomenal cook. I love her food as long as she remembers not to use ingredients that I’m allergic to. (Yes, it’s happened in the past. I walked outside coughing and wheezing and the pediatrician who lived next-door asked me, “Do you have asthma?” No, I never had asthma, thank G-d. All I had were allergies to some ingredient that I didn’t know was in the kugel.)

That’s another prime example why I prefer to stay home. At least then I know I can eat the food – because I cooked it. I also like to be able to eat whatever I want when I’m hungry and not feel weird about it because I’m in someone else’s house.

“Do you really know what you’re getting into?” DH asked. “How many things you’re going to have to get?” I think he was concerned about the countless items we would need to buy and the expense. I tried to explain that I had that under control.

I’ll leave my shopping list for another blog entry.

How I Survived Mid-Winter Vacation

You know how the teachers love to assign essays on the first day back at school, ‘How I spent my summer vacation’? Well, in that vein, I bring you the results of my nearly-one-week with my boys out of school!

Friday is the day I am busy cooking for Shabbos. There are people who make most of their fare on Thursday or – gasp – Wednesday, but I have a husband who likes everything freshly cooked on Friday. The exception is chicken soup, which I prepare on Thursday. (It usually tastes better the second day, anyway.) Even with the boys at home, I still had to cook. No exciting activities were planned. Right from the get-go, I banned the Wii for the day because I was not exactly thrilled with their behavior so there went that entertainment that was supposed to keep them occupied… Oh, well. I do not like to reward bad behavior.

Later, I had to practically drag the boys through the streets to pick up my daughter from playgroup and bribe them with a Shabbos nosh of their choice from the corner store to get them to walk nicely. They were not quiet about their lack of appreciation for the exercise. “Mommy, why don’t you take a car service?” my oldest son asked. He is probably the sort of person who would drive his car down the block to catch a minyan (a prayer service) even if he lived only a block away. Then again, there’s always the chance he’ll grow up by then. He’s still only seven. My four-year-old had a tantrum. I couldn’t figure out what he wanted until his older brother suggested I put his hood on for him. Wow. That did the trick! Sometimes you have to understand a whole different language with kids.

Friday Pesach cleaning tally: 0. (I hate to admit, not all the floors were even washed for Shabbos.)

Fast forward to Sunday. This was a day I had zero expectations of accomplishing anything. All three children were home. DH was working a full-day. I had been lazy the night before and had not done a stich of laundry (I normally get the washer party started by then) so that was still piled up to the sky. The silverware was still in the kitchen sink. No little elves had come to clean it overnight, alas.

Fortunately, I got Sunday off to a good start. I ran out before 9 AM while DH was still home to watch the kids. I picked up fresh bread and milk. I fried eggs and ate a hearty breakfast. There’s nothing like wholesome food in the morning to start the day off right. Somehow, I cleaned out most of my children’s room. I’d say about 90% of it is done. (See what can be accomplished when you push off the laundry?)

My children’s room is the one place I had refused to spend time on whenever I put on my ‘cleaning lady cap’ because it was an exercise in futility. A day or two later, you would never have known that I’d spent hours cleaning it up. I always preferred to focus my energy on areas that could be visibly seen by visitors to the house, like the living room/dining room area because that is what you walk into when you enter the house. The kitchen and bathroom occupied top spots on my cleanup list (as they should) and the kids’ bedroom was relegated to the lowest spot on the totem pole. The youngsters were given the job of cleaning it every week, before Shabbos, but somehow they do a far less thorough job than you or I.

Now, with Pesach cleaning on the mind, everything was different. I figured the kiddy bedroom would be one of the best places to start with because I have hopes that it will remain Pesachdik. (Realistically, I will most probably have to do some of it over, but this cleanup is an immense help!) Boy, oh boy, what a difference it is to walk in there! Before, there was so much clutter and mess you could not walk in there without stepping on something. It was as if a congested asthmatic airway finally received medication via an inhaler and could now actually breathe!

I also cleaned out the main part of their closet and the new format is vastly improved over the previous pileup of outgrown-clothing boxes. Guess I should give myself a pat on the back. I had thought the kids would help more, but they were so busy playing Wii that I really didn’t mind not having everyone in my hair as I worked. When it came to the fun part (think sponges and bubbles) they definitely showed up!

Sunday tally: The children’s room! Yay!

Monday, I wanted to take the boys’ to Chuck E Cheese, but we were so late getting out in the morning, that by the time we returned from taking their sister to playgroup, it really was not worth going anymore. Instead, I decided to take them somewhere within walking distance so we went to Kids ’n Action. (I had coupons for free pizza, drink and tokens!) They did not want to stay very long, which I considered a shame since I’d shelled out $13 per ticket, but at least they had a bit of fun. The seven-year-old refused to eat the pizza because he wasn’t in the mood. He kept begging to go home instead so he could make his own lunch. This from the kid who usually complains, “When are we going to go to a real pizza store?” when I offered him frozen pizza. Go figure it.

Monday Pesach-cleaning tally: 0 but at least we were out part of the day, so the house did not get destroyed. I was surprised at how far my boys walked that day. First they trekked to playgroup and back, then to Kids ‘n Action, and ultimately to playgroup again for pickup. Could it be that my boys who hardly walk anywhere were finally getting the hang of walking?

Tuesday, I woke up with another headache. (Kids vacation somehow does that to me.) I had promised the boys Chuck E Cheese, but I was not in the mood of the whole bus/train equation. I just wasn’t. I was starting to think we would spend a simple day grocery-shopping instead, when a friend phoned and literally saved the day. She offered to pick us up in her minivan and take us to CC! (She has a son in each of my sons’ classes.) I jumped at the offer. The boys had so much more fun with their friends in CC than they’d had the day before on their own at Kids ‘n Action. It was also interesting to hear the Pesach-making tips of a five-year Pesach-making veteran mom!

TIP: Keep a notebook from year to year. Keep records showing how much you bought of each item and how much was actually required. Keep tabs of each year’s entire Pesach expense, this way you know how much to budget for the following year. Keep all the recipes that were successfully used and before you know it, you’ll have a personalized Pesach guidebook.

Tuesday tally: 0, but at least I got a great tip! BONUS, the second Wii controller arrived late Tuesday.

Wednesday, we finally went to do the grocery shopping. I learned (for the millionth time) that my boys walk as slow as turtles and still the seven-year-old was complaining, “Mommy, you’re going too fast!”

Wanting to get out as early as possible (and that still wasn’t early enough) I had not eaten a normal breakfast (just a protein shake). Before I knew it, I could barely stand on my own two feet. It was already after noon and the normal errands I usually do each week had taken SO much longer, schlepping two little boys along, that I didn’t realize how late it was getting. When we were finally on the way home, I could barely walk down the block we were on and decided to sit on the edge of someone’s property to rest. I remembered a pack of Pop Mmms in my purse and shared them with my four-year-old. Wow, that little bit of sugar really rejuvenated me! Just as we were about to leave, the inhabitant of that house came out and caught us sitting there. I was kind of embarrassed but fortunately, she was a frum lady. She did not seem to mind our presence at all, instead she introduced herself and the usual ‘Jewish Geography’ ensued. Upon her realization that she knew my mother-in-law, she proffered treats for the boys before we parted ways. It was really sweet.

Wednesday tally: 0, but I spent quality time with my boys and we even made dough forrugelach! At least I could rest assured knowing Thursday was back to school at last!

To sum it all up, I am happy to note that the vacation was a whole lot better than I expected it to be. Somehow, I felt calmer and more relaxed than an ordinary Sunday. It was really convenient to have my daughter in playgroup while the boys were off. I am glad for things to be back to normal now but look back at this week hoping my sons gained some positive childhood memories from our time together.

What’s more, my heart swells with pride whenever I enter the kids’ room. What a blessing Pesach-cleaning is! If not for Pesach cleaning, procrastinators like me would still have messy kids’ rooms!

Pesach? An Explanation Please

You! You there, the one who stumbled upon this blog and don’t know what a Pesach diary is because you are unfamiliar with the term Pesach. Will you stay long enough to reach the conclusion that Pesach is the same as Passover, the more commonly used secular name for the same holiday?

What exactly is the purpose of this holiday? Is it just another day celebrated with its given ethnic food, like associating turkey with Thanksgiving, in this case Pesach with matza?

Do you ever stop and wonder, why? Why do we do this? Why do we make ourselves crazy in the weeks and months leading up to our Pesach holiday, leaving nothing unturned in our mission to clear our home from any trace of chometz?

Do you even know what chometz means? Have you ever been to a seder?

Welcome to the wonderful world of orthodox religious Jews. We strive to maintain the same Pesach our ancestors celebrated when they were redeemed from slavery in Egypt. It’s not enough to say our fathers were slaves in Egypt, but WE were too. In the rush to get out of Egypt, the dough did not have time to rise and therefore turned into matza. We were commanded to remove all chometz from our households and refrain from eating it during the entire holiday of Pesach. No, that is not just for the seder, but rather for the entire eight-day-stretch that is the duration of Pesach.

Chabad.org defines Chometz as "leaven" -- any food that's made of grain and water that have been allowed to ferment and "rise." Bread, cereal, cake, cookies, pizza, pasta, and beer are blatant examples of chametz; but any food that contains grain or grain derivatives can be, and often is, chametz. Practically speaking, any processed food that is not certified "Kosher for Passover" may potentially include chametz ingredients.

AskMoses.com clarifies: Chametz is any product that contains wheat, barley, oats, spelt or rye that has leavened (risen). Our Rabbis have determined that flour from any of these five grains that comes in contact with water or moisture will leaven unless completely baked within eighteen minutes.

For the rest of you, who have been keeping Pesach forever, or at least for years and years, you know the deal. We turn over every room in our home in search of a wayward pretzel or cookie crumb. We find lost toys or earrings and feel so refreshed to actually have every single nook and cranny – even the ones we normally forget about – clean, for a change. (Yes, there are those women whose homes are always spotless; don’t worry, I’m referring to the rest of us.) Many people confuse Pesach cleaning with spring cleaning, but most of us just merge the two together. If we’re already cleaning for chometz, why not clean for dust as well? It’s the perfect excuse to stop procrastinating and finally clean out and organize all the closets that would have otherwise kept getting pushed off indefinitely.

The closer we get to the month when Pesach usually falls out, April, cleaning women become the most sought after. There have been cases of women sobbing uncontrollably because their cleaning help quit on them. Some desperate women offer to increase the pay of cleaning help if only they will work for her instead of their usual customers. Crazy, crazy, crazy.

Some of us move out of our homes and sell all the remaining chometz for the duration of the holiday so that we are no longer the owners when we are forbidden to be. Actually, it’s not just some of us, but we ALL sell the ‘chometz’, whether any remains or not, there are always the pots and pans and dinnerware we used for cooking and serving chometz during the year and that gets sold too. There might be remnants of chometz that we may have missed and we don’t want to take any chances about owning chometz on Pesach.

Yes, it’s quite complicated. I’m no expert, no rabbi’s wife, no Hebrew teacher – just an ordinary Jewish woman who grew up with this life so if you want to know more, Google it. The above-mentioned resources are good starting points.

Mid-Winter Vacation

My boys’ school is letting out tomorrow for six days straight. Let me tell you, the title is such a misnomer. It should be called Mid-Winter House-Wrecking or Stuck-At-Home-With-Cabin-Fever. Or perhaps, Chuck-E-Cheese Week. I know there are mothers out there who look forward to spending time with their kids when they are off from school, but I’ll be honest with you. I dread all those days ‘off’.

My husband takes the car to work so if I want to go anywhere with the boys, it means schlepping by bus or train. Fortunately for the youngsters, they are very excited at the prospect of riding the train that we could probably just stay on the train and then ride back on the opposite track and they would think we went on a really cool trip!

As if I have nothing to do all day besides ride trains…

I guess it will have to be a week where I go on a Pesach-cleaning hiatus. How can I clean when the kids are making messes? We all know that old adage about shoveling while it’s still snowing, after all.

I tried to get some toys in the house that would keep Junior and his brother occupied. They each have their own Nintendo DS. (The first was an afikomen gift, the second was a pre-owned flea market bargain.) You would think that would keep them somewhat busy. But if it doesn’t, I ordered a Wii console with the gift card bought via my credit card points. (It pays to pay tuition with plastic. The points really add up!) It came with one game and one controller. I ordered another game online that came with a bonus controller, so the kids should be able to play together at the same time, but the packer messed up and sent me the wrong (useless) item. Now we still have only one controller, an impending ‘vacation’ and two boys. I guess they can also play with Lego, but I’m afraid that none of this will keep them occupied long enough for me to make much Pesach-cleaning progress.

However, there is one other thing they love to do. My boys are thrilled to gain control of soap, spray bottles and shmattas and ‘clean’. The older one is actually not bad with a scrubber brush. Maybe I’ll have them wash some walls or something. That will help with the Pesach-cleaning and with keeping them entertained at the same time!

This past Succos, I bumped into an ol’ friend of mine and asked her how she spent her Chol Hamoed. She admitted she didn’t really go much of anywhere, but one day she went into her kids’ room and completely organized everything in it. She felt so good once this was done AND it kept her children busy! (When I mentioned this to my husband, whose idea of Chol Hamoed is FUN, MORE FUN, and OUTINGS, he grimaced.)

Maybe the next room on my Pesach-cleaning campaign should be the kids’ room.

Maybe it’s actually not a bad idea to start this activity during their lengthy mid-winter break.

An Explosion Of Excitement

Just as I am applying the finishing touches to my first Pesach-cleaned room of 2012 (!) and starting to think that maybe, just maybe everything might be finished in time for the holiday, a new turn of events crops up. It is so unexpected, yet long overdue that I am thrilled by the timing but concerned at the same time that it may threaten the outcome of my Pesach Project. Just in case things were progressing too simply, too smoothly, too much in the mundane zone of things, life decided it was time to throw in a curve ball.

If only every wrinkle in the tissue paper of life were so exciting: My brother became a chosson. Mazel Tov! What a simcha! He is 28. The kallah is 25. Everything is lebedik, joyful, beautiful. Blissful serenity is suddenly interrupted by a sonic BOOM – they want to make the wedding before Pesach.

It’s either before Pesach or after Shavuos. The bride’s family does not believe in making weddings on Lag B’Omer. They feel that after Shavuos would be too long a wait, so they want to rush it before Pesach. That means the wedding will be in approximately two months, mere weeks before Pesach. Who has time for this? (Okay, that was a joke. I will go to my brother’s wedding ANY time. Too bad I can’t pick it.)

Now that we have a family wedding in the near future, my Pesach cleaning will be in direct competition with my wedding preparations. Searching for gowns and simcha attire for all the kiddies; various related planning (will we siblings be making a joint sheva brachos?) running around and travelling upstate where the shebang is taking place, etc…

Here I was, a week ago, already thinking how there was not enough time in the day to get it all done, and now there’s (Baruch Hashem) more to do. Of course, this is a very fortunate turn of events, though as Murphy’s Law goes, it was bound to happen when the timing would prove challenging.

Well, this just means that I’ll have to be more organized; more focused; and get more accomplished in less time.

I’m up for the challenge.

Time Management

You would think that a stay-at-home mother with all her children out during the day would have all the time in the world to Pesach clean! Let’s figure this out: My kindergarten child has the least amount of school per day of all my kids, from 9:15 – 2:45. Fortunately, he is now on transportation (both ways – as opposed to my walking a mile each way to pick him up as I was doing) so he is actually out of the house longer than my playgroup toddler. Playgroup is from nine to three. That’s full six hours of non-stop getting the house in order for Pesach!

Except that…maybe I also have to live my life during that time? Additionally, I am the one transporting my daughter to the aforementioned playgroup and back. More often than not, we are not there at nine on the dot. (Often, I am happy if I am back home by 9:30.) I am, however, always at playgroup for pickup at three or earlier. So that cuts significantly into the six hours.

When you consider the time it takes to eat, wash dishes, cook supper, do laundry, tidy up, shop and nap – there really aren’t too many hours leftover.

But the truth is, I really have to get a handle on my management of time. (Of course, who doesn’t?)

While I succeeded in finishing the armoire and also the night-stand, among trivial other achievements, the fact remains that it all goes at such a significantly slow pace. Why?

1- If I am going to clean out drawers, I want to do it right. That means getting rid of unnecessary junk in the process. This sorting requires more thought and brain cells than simply checking forchometz.

2- It’s difficult to devote more than an hour or two at a time to organizing. There is a war going on with every item in question – the sentimental side versus the practical, logical side. For example: Do I need this? I’m not sure. Let’s see, I haven’t used it in ages but can’t see myself getting rid of it just yet. No, if I’m honest with myself, I don’t need it, BUT! That is a big ‘but’. There can be many reasons for this. Take your pick: A) I have a history with the item. B) I spent a lot of money on it. C) Someone special gave it to me. D) Even though I don’t use it, I still like it. The things that are a no-brainer to throw out are so much easier!

3- I am also running to change over laundry loads or answering the phone or turning off the oven buzzer in the middle of my work. Distractions, anyone?

I looked up Time Management Tips online. The first important tip I came across is:

FIND OUT WHERE YOU ARE WASTING TIME.

Yes, I do waste a lot of time online. I waste a lot of time sleeping and eating too, but time online is easier to cut out. (Supposedly.)

Once that step is done, the next tip is: CREATE GOALS.

I guess this would mean, for example: Today is a beautiful day to clean out the linen closet. Or clean out the bathroom cabinets.

The next tip mentioned is to: IMPLEMENT A TIME MANAGEMENT PLAN

I suppose this can be carried out by not going online on the given morning until the linen closet is cleaned out. First do the priority and then the extra.

Yes, a later tip is to PRIORITIZE. At this point, Pesach cleaning is competing with cooking and laundry etc… I guess it will be a higher level on the priority list the closer we get to April.

Next tip: LEARN TO DELEGATE AND/OR OUTSOURCE.

Ah, this… This is what I have the hardest time with. We’re talking about someone who has never had a cleaning lady. I also spend half an hour washing a sink-load of dishes because I have no dishwasher, either. Get the idea? Sure, it would be easy to say, “Get a cleaning woman!” or “Install a dishwasher!” but not everything in life is as simple as that. There are reasons behind everything.

I continued reading the time management article and reached this brilliant tidbit:

ESTABLISH ROUTINES AND STICK TO THEM AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.

This makes a lot of sense. When you know what comes next, things seem to fall into place like clockwork. A trap many SAHMs fall into is thinking you have all the time in the world to get something done (because face it, you do) and of course things don’t just get done like that.

GET IN THE HABIT OF SETTING TIME LIMITS FOR TASKS

In this case, the article was referring to the example of checking email which is something they claim can take all day if you let it. Oh, I hope not!

The final TIP is to NOT WASTE TIME WAITING. So when they put you on hold on the phone, now is a good time to carry on sorting the aforementioned laundry or to peel some potatoes for supper.

I could go on, but I overstayed my time writing this composition.

Tips source http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/timemanagement/a/timemgttips.htm