Path to Passover :: Not Perfect

This is about the time of year where I'm simultaneously planning and freaking out. Keeping Passover isn't something I grew up with, so my traditions have been developed over the last 15 years or so. So I'm not an expert.

And there's lots of resources, recipes, and directions out there on how to get ready for Passover from people who know what they're talking about.

Despite this, Passover is probably my favorite Jewish holiday. The center of celebration is in the home. It's in the searching for leaven, and cleaning it out. The mundane becomes holy. Our daily chores become a work of sanctification. Spring cleaning becomes more than just spring cleaning. It becomes a spiritual discipline.

Having said that, my work is always far from perfect. The first thing I do, even before I make lists of things to clean is to modify my current routines. Once the spring hits, I start thinking of the things I can start to do to make things easier on myself when it gets to the final push. I'm working to keep things clean and not let it get too dirty. So that when I go to wipe down the counters the week of Passover, I don't have to scrape down the counters. I'll just wipe and go.

Oh, and my first favorite resource for how to get ready is here, Kosher on a Budget. Her lists and how-tos for getting ready for Passover helped me a ton last year!

Let's get ready for Passover!

Five Minute Friday :: Joy

I'm joining Lisa-Jo Baker for her Five Minute Friday.  Her rules:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking. 2. Link back here and invite others to join in. 3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community.

The word today is joy. GO.

I sit in the pizza place listening to a daddy on a lunch date with his young daughter. She's maybe three or four by the way it sounds. What joy to hear the conversations a daddy can have with his little one.  I, on the other hand, have a lunchdate with myself. Isn't that a nice treat now and again?

I went to Woolesy Hall today with my fifth grader's band. They played on the stage with New Haven school music departments with T. S. Monk. What a joy it was to hear these children play in such an amazing music hall? I felt honor that that I could tag along as a chaperone!

I find it easy to discover joy in the little things, in the amazing acoustics in an old hall to the friendly service at the pizza place. I remember last time I was here, eating pizza with all my kids, keeping them quiet while they waited for their dinner. That was a different type of joy. This is the quiet , being alone among people type of joy I have today. And I appreciate both types.


And STOP.

Thanks for stopping by. I love these Five Minute Fridays, they give me a groove for my writing. Any suggestions on how to get a groove for writing?

Path to Passover: Take stock

I was excited when I looked at my calendar this morning, and up popped my Passover reminder that I wrote to myself as Passover ended last year. 

As soon as Purim ends, I like to start thinking about getting ready for Passover. In these weeks leading up to it, I'll be writing about some of the things I've done to get ready for the season.

What do you do to get ready for Passover? Please share in the comments!

Five Minute Friday :: Crowd

I'm joining Lisa-Jo Baker for her Five Minute Friday.  Her rules:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking. 2. Link back here and invite others to join in. 3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community.

GO.  The word today is crowd.

I'm odd in a crowd. It's not that I dislike people, at all, or even crowded areas. I'm just not always ready to be in the midst of a large group of people all the time. There are many times when I gather myself to the edges of the crowd, to watch from a different perspective. Sometimes you can see different things when you're looking from the outside of a crowd, in than from the inside looking out. You can get a perspective change, I think.

In the end, I'm the girl who appreciates her solitude. Don't get me wrong - love being with people. I think my favorite crowd is my family. Family is the smallest of communities, the bedrock of other communities. Living in family Fivemakes me happy. In college, I yearned for my own family. I loved the freedom of living on my own, but I lived on my own. I love being with my husband and my children, and I love my times of quiet when I can think and be a little balanced.

And STOP.

Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate you reading, and I appreciate loving comments!

Modern day parable

For my husband's 50th birthday, we've been surrounded by balloons! We blew up a bunch by ourselves, then we had some mylar and regular balloons inflated by helium.

I watched my kids keep the balloons we blew up in the air. Fine. I started the game, but I got tired, and watched. It takes a lot of effort to keep the balloon up in the air. Gravity does its job, and what goes up, comes back down.

The helium-inflated balloons stay up on their own. There's a difference between the mylar balloons and regular ones. After a couple of days, the regular balloons have started to sag to the ground, while the mylar ones, with thick skin, will probably stay in the air until August. Or until I pop them...

The balloons are like us, trying to stay in the air, trying to keep our spiritual life close to God. When we fill up with our own spirit, we can get in the air, but we come right back down. We get tired trying and trying to stay in the air. We watch mylar balloons stay and wonder what they do to stay afloat in the air.

What is the difference? A different kind of air. We need a different kind of Spirit to keep us going. That's what Yeshua means when he tells us that His burden is light and He will give us rest. I can't keep myself going without burning out. But when I allow the Spirit of God to fill my life, I won't get burned out.

So be the balloon filled with helium.

Shabbat Thought :: Parasha Vayikra

Each week in the Synagogue, a different portion of scripture is studied.  The Torah (Old Testament) is broken into portions which are read over the course of a year.  At the end of the year, it starts over again so the Bible is read annually. 

This week's Parasha is Vayikra from Leviticus 1:1-5:26.

He shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar, and what remains of the blood shall be drained out at the base of the altar; it is a sin offering. Leviticus 5:9 (JPS)

Offerings and sin offerings and guilt offerings, oh my! It's a great deal to wrap your mind around, isn't it? Do you ever have those weeks where you just can't get into a text? Your house is finally recovering from crumbs on the floor, and the piles of laundry and dishes aren't so tall, but your brain is a little fuzzy? No? Just me?

Well. In my reading of this week's parasha, It occurs to me that worship before Yeshua was really really messy. Blood was everywhere! Imagine being there, being then, the noise of animals roaming the temple. There must have been lots of people noise, talking, shouting. You hear the chanting of prayers, the confession of sins. You hear the screams of the dying animals. And the blood everywhere - on the alter, on the base of the altar. Everyone's hands  must have been covered in blood.

We don't touch blood much in our American culture. Surgeons do. Butchers do. But not communally, the way the world used to on a daily basis. Even to eat meat, the everyday person doesn't usually touch blood like they used to when you had to slaughter your own chickens for a chicken dinner.

The book of Hebrews tells us how things have changed since Yeshua came:

The Torah has a shadow of the good things to come—not the form itself of the realities. For this reason it can never, by means of the same sacrifices they offer constantly year after year, make perfect those who draw near.  Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers—cleansed once and for all—would no longer have consciousness of sins?  But in these sacrifices is a reminder of sins year after year—  for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. ( Hebrews 10:1-4 TLV)

Therefore, brethren, we have boldness to enter into the Holies by the blood of Yeshua .  He inaugurated a new and living way for us through the curtain—that is, His flesh.  We also have a Kohen  Gadol over God’s household. So let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and body washed with pure water.( Hebrews 10:19-22 TLV)

I'm really thankful our worship isn't as messy as it used to be. I'm thankful that I don't have to deal with blood in order to have my sins forgiven. I'm glad that Yeshua died for our sins, as the offering, and that the way we worship forever changed.

Aren't you?

Shabbat Shalom!

Five Minute Friday :: Willing

I'm joining Lisa-Jo Baker for her Five Minute Friday.  Her rules:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking. 2. Link back here and invite others to join in. 3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community.

The word today is willing. GO.

Okay. Five minutes, focused writing. (When I free write, I always need to talk to myself!) I've been thinking recently about what I haven't been willing to do to say yes to other things. One thing about being a mother I treasured even before I had my own kids is that time early morning when your kids jump into bed with you and snuggle. Oh! It's the sweetest thing in the world with little ones! To just have time to be with them and to hold them. "They" always say to treasure your babies while they're babies. So I have been.

I am not necessarily a morning person. (Or a night owl, for that matter...) So getting up at five (or six...) in the morning is hard for me. When mothers say that they get out of bed before their kids get up, I always say, but my kids get me out of bed. I have not been willing to give up that sweet time with my children just to have moments to myself. My moments come, or will come.

Something happened recently, though. My kids haven't come in to wake me up before I'm awake so much anymore. Some mornings, I'm even up before all three of them are. At the ages of 10, 8, and 5, snuggling Mom in the morning may not happen much anymore. And that's okay with me. It's just a season of time. I did my part to treasure the babies, and I don't really have them anymore. Now, I need to treasure my young school-aged kids. And that means taking advantage of them not needing to snuggle in the morning, and getting up and using those early(ish) hours for focusing on myself.

And STOP.

Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate you reading, and I appreciate loving comments. While you're here, will you drop by and read my devotional on this week's Torah Portion?