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

Excuses, Excuses

Life has been getting in the way of my Pesach project. Or, to be more blunt, I have been neglecting the project. After all, it’s easy to theorize, the holiday is still months away! The stores are having their clearance sales now. There is plenty of time.

Yeah.

Right?

When I first thought about this Pesach endeavor, I wondered how it would be possible to make Pesach in an apartment such as the one I live in. My apartment is a walk-through. This means, (for anyone not living in tight-Brooklyn quarters): You enter the home, walk through the living ‘room’ to get to the dining ‘room’, the dining room to get to the kitchen and then you pass through the kitchen to reach the bedrooms and single bathroom. In short, my question was this: How would it be possible to make Pesach in an apartment where the kitchen in smack in the middle of everything?!?!? The eye of the storm!

I was discussing this with my sister-in-law. She advised me to begin with whatever I can do now, like the little office room my husband closed off from the parlor area before we moved in, closets, bedrooms etc… When it gets closer to the fact, I’ll do the rest.

My main concern, though, was how to get the kids to stop spreading chometz throughout the house? They keep taking nosh to the computer in the office! I need the ‘babysitting’ which the Uncle Moishy DVDs (and other video clips) on the computer provide – how else can I get anything done with the little guys’ non-stop demands unless I hypnotize them with something? I know, it sounds like I’m a bad mother, and maybe I am, but I can’t be their gopher 24/7 or I’d never get anything done! Toys are not always the solution. (Why is it that they always have to fight over the same toy or “Mommy, he touched my game!” etc…?) So, for now, I cannot completely lock up the office room, though I have tried to limit their presence in it.

As of now, the task at hand is daunting. I have Pesach-cleaned all of two shelves. Chometz found: One box of chocolate (that I knew was there, but which I moved to a kitchen cabinet anyway.)

Have a good Shabbos.

Sometimes The Hardest Part of The Project Is Getting To It

Before beginning a grandiose project, it makes sense to lay out all the tasks in a neat list. This way you have something to check off with each accomplishment. Unfortunately, I could spend a week compiling a list (did I mention I have a knack for overcomplicating things?) so I decided instead that my first task would be to clean the master bedroom.

You would think a bedroom would take a few hours to clean, perhaps a day, max. Not when the day begins on a late note. I went to sleep too late; did not sleep well; woke up too late and by the time my children were all in school and I returned home from my daughter’s playgroup and the corner grocery store, it’s not hard to figure that it was already practically 10 AM. I had not yet eaten a morsel of food, never mind a coffee. (Not that I drink coffee, just saying.)

How was I going to make Pesach, I wondered, when I couldn’t even get my act together on a given Monday morning?

Granted, it was not really the typical Monday. My boys’ varsity buses were not running due to the January 1^st holiday.

Hopefully once things get back on schedule, I will too.

Time to start Pesach cleaning! Yes. First I need to eat a good breakfast of whole wheat bread, eggs and carrot juice. Then I throw a load into the washing machine and prepare the supper so that it is gently cooking on the stove. Do you spot a trend here? None of the above mentioned items have anything to do with Pesach cleaning.

Sigh.

Enter the master bedroom. A load of laundry sits on the bed, waiting to be folded. I sort my way through the basket. Everything is now in its corresponding drawer. Whew! It’s already almost 11 AM. I decide to start with the armoire. It has not been cleaned or organized in months! I empty the shelf containing my sweaters and tops. A handful of tops have closet stains. These go in a pile. If the stains come out in the next wash, fine – otherwise the tops will have to go. I don’t mind. It’s about time; most of them are years old.

The next shelf contains hair styling accessories, important documents and a lot of junk to sort through. A lot of it goes into the trash. Much of it goes back onto the shelf after it has been cleaned of dust and microscopic crumbs. There is one more shelf left, but I decide to save that for later. Whoever dreamed two shelves would be so exhausting? I am spent. It is time for lunch.

Funny how the rest of the bedroom looks so much messier because the shelves are so much neater! (Many objects that were in the armoire now require replacement in different spots. In the meantime, they are piled high on the dresser.)

I did a bit more dusting in the room. That was it. My first stint at Pesach Cleaning 2012.

Now you know why I had to start in January.

Confessions of a Pesach-Making Newbie

Allow me to share a secret with you. Although, when you think about it, it’s really not that much of a secret. It’s so much less a hushed up tidbit and so much more a rite of passage that one has yet to pass. One that is not really something people want to venture out and advertise, kind of like if they still can’t ride a bicycle, or have never been kissed.

Okay. I’ll admit it. I have never made Pesach.

I have (thank G-d) been married for close to a decade. I have three kids (ka”h). I have done many things. Making Pesach has just not been one of them.

It’s not like I really ever had to. During my first year of marriage, I was expecting my firstborn and recall splitting the holiday between my husband’s parents and my own. This involved a long car trip on the road with not much to eat aside for the ample supply of chocolate and little else we packed. In the ensuing years, we either spent the entire holiday out-of-town at my parents’ digs or in town enjoying the guestrooms of my husband’s family’s abode. The latter usually occurred when I had a newborn – one was born two weeks before Pesach and another was almost six weeks old at the time. Last year, we took turns at both accommodations, but it really started becoming a schlep to pack enough clothes for so many people and live out of suitcases, even if it was just for a temporary fortnight. Especially when Pesach comes during a season when you don’t know if you need winter attire or summer wear, so you have to pack both...

I guess when you think about it, I’m not alone. To spare the trouble of making Pesach, I have heard of couples with, like, ten kids or so, still moving into their parents’ places for the holiday. There are some affluent individuals among us who move into lavish hotels for the duration of the chometz-free days. Others are fortunate to have parents or grandparents sponsoring Pesach in Florida or other tropical locales.

(The last time I visited Florida was during my single years. I don’t want to go back there. To those years, I mean. To Florida, you can buy me a ticket anytime!)

There was always a reason why not to make Pesach. I had a baby in the house. I had a toddler in the house. Another baby, etc… You get the idea. So many new parents can’t get a sandwich made – never mind an entire Pesach! I know there are many women out there who manage to do it all, even with a new baby every year or two, all the while working successful jobs and they still make Pesach. Good for them.

I am not them.

Others manage to do it no matter what life throws their way. For some, it seems like no big deal. They take it as it comes. You’d think it was a simple as getting dressed in the morning.

(Then again, whoever said that was simple?)

Still, if they can do it, why can’t I?

Um, because I tend to overcomplicate matters…I procrastinate…I get overwhelmed and can’t think straight. Enough excuses, for starters?

Wait, there’s more: Pesach paraphernalia can really add up. I still am not quite sure how much it will cost to buy all the necessary pots and pans and whatnot.

Despite having to shell out the initial investment for our first Pesach, I really, really wanted to do it last year. I mentioned the idea on the way back from my parents’ house where we had spent the Succos holiday. I figured that was early enough to give me time to start figuring things out. My husband was not encouraging.

He had reasons for being against it. Did I mention that his busiest time of the year at work is before Pesach? That is when he pulls the longest hours and has nary a moment to breathe. I cannot rely on him to help me turn over my apartment.

This year, however, I really want to make Pesach. I am aware of my husband’s inability to help me. I still feel very strongly that this is something that I must do for once and for all. It is the first time my children are all out of the house during the day (at school or playgroup) so I do not have any major excuse not to. I have been busy with various projects since my youngest started playgroup this summer, so why not make Pesach my next big project?

I figured I might as well keep a diary for the duration of this episode in my life. It’s kind of like the ‘Girl On A Diet’ column in Ami Magazine. If she bails on her diet, she’ll have nothing to write about. Writing about a failed attempt to make Pesach and having to move into my parents’ place at the last minute is not in my plans this year. Hopefully, this diary will help keep me motivated and focused on achieving my goal.