LISTS!!!

As each year goes by, I am not sure about you, but my list of lists for Pesach seems to grow and grow. I feel like I am constantly writing things down so not to forget things and end up with a bunch of scrap papers that I need to go through at the end of the day to sort out what needs to get done and when.

And so, my dear friends, this year I created this...

Click here to check it out...

I printed it out and put it in a binder. It is literally a bunch of blank lists that I fill in for Pesach through out the month and it gives me a lot of sanity. I have it on my kitchen counter and as things come along, I plug it into the appropriate list. If I think of a good idea for a meal, I stick it in one of the menus. You get the idea. Now all my lists and ideas are all in one place, and so is my mind.

The Simple Pesach Planner includes:

*A one month calendar for the month before Pesach

*A one week calendar for the week before Pesach

*A Kids Menu for the week before Pesach (so our kids don't starve while we stress out)

*A cleaning list

*A shopping list sorted by types of products

*A guest list

*Seder preparation list

*To Do list for day before and day of Seder

*Table setup

*Yom Tov preparation list

*Delegation lists to give out to those helping you

*Seder Menus

*Yom Tov lunch Menus

*Chol Hamoed Menus

*Shabbos Menus

*Last day Yom Tov Menus (Dinners and Lunches)

Feel free to print out whatever lists work for you- 

Enjoy your week, dont get over whelmed and dont forget to breathe...............

Always, 

Let the Pesach Fun Begin!

Okay ladies, we have a WEEK before Pesach- how awesome is that?

I have been spring cleaning my house for the past 2 weeks and I can safely say that I have filled up a very large amount of garbage bags as well as boxes to be thrown out, donated or recycled and it feels GREAT!

Now that the bulk of the cleaning is done, this week I plan to Kosher my kitchen and turn it into a Pesach kitchen... we are aiming for Wednesday if all goes according to plan- and on Tuesday I will have help in vacuuming  sweeping and mopping the entire house (under beds and couches etc.) to make sure all crumbs have safely left the building.

I have my little clipboard with all my lists of everything that needs to get done between now and next Monday but the one thing we often forget about is feeding our kids proper wholesome healthy meals which will prevent them from getting cranky and give them energy to keep busy so we can get on with whatever we have to get on with!

Nows the time to make a food plan for the kids for this week as well as activity/child care plan so we can actually accomplish everything we need to accomplish...

While my kitchen will not be entirely Kosher for Pesach until Wednesday, I need to make sure that nothing crumby will be around as we have lots of little ones who like to wonder off with their bags of Cheerios or peanut butter sandwiches. By now, we have pretty much finished up most of our Chametz so tomorrow morning I will take about 20 minutes to make sure I have a few of the following snacks stocked in the fridge  in tupperwares or ziplocs, making it easy for the little ones to just grab a piece or two when feeling hungry:

Fruits & Vegetables peeled and cut into bite size pieces:

watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple, kiwis, carrots, papaya

Fruit in a big bowl on the Kitchen table, ready to grab:

bananas, apples, pears, oranges, plums, peaches

Next we need breakfast ideas- no more crumbly cereal or french toast- or any toast for that matter... so this is what we will be having:

Fruit smoothies, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, fried eggs, vegetable omelets, cheese omelets, yogurts, cottage cheese with fruit, apple sauce

Below are a bunch of ideas to mix and match for lunches and dinners-

chicken soup, vegetable soup, butternut squash soup, cabbage soup, zucchini soup 

grilled chicken breast, grilled salmon, roast chicken, chicken kebabs, fish sticks, chicken fingers

grilled zucchini, carrots, eggplant, butternut squash, sweet potatoes

These are just a few easy and simple dishes to make ensuring your family are fed and well nourished~

May this be a smooth and accomplishing week!

Always,

Jewish Holidays in a Box

I have been in touch with a wonderful woman who runs Jewish Holidays in a Box. 

This is such a fabulous website, take a quick jump over there to check it out- http://jewishholidaysinabox.com/

I was also given the opportunity to review this adorable Passover Seder guide. The 3-part downloadable package comes with a 36-page PDF + 2 audio tutorials. It is filled with very clear and simple instructions on how to run the perfect Pesach Seder. It includes all the Passover Basics, Passover FAQ's, Shopping list, Setting up the Seder, Kids activities to keep them engaged in the Seder, Pre-Seder activities, Passover arts'n crafts and more.

It is on sale now for $2.99 until March 15th, and after that it will be $4.99--

so head on over and pick one up!

Click Here to Purchase "Celebrate Passover- How to Plan a Fun, Simple Seder"

Happy Pesach prepping!

Always, 

Pesach Activities for the Kiddos

Here is My Pesach Activity Pack:

{Click Here}

My Pesach Book of Shapes:

{Click Here}

Pesach Activities we have done in the past:

{Click Here}

Pesach Prep post will be up this week- have a good one!

Save 15% on CAP IT from now until Pesach using code HS15  at check-out!

Interview with the Neighbor who doesn't like Noisy Kids

The other day my kids were playing in the backyard on the playset, having a ball when I hear the neighbor behind us (there is a thick hedge that divides our houses so this neighbor has never seen nor met my kids) making some snide remark about the 'noisy kids next door'.

Now just to be clear, my kids were laughing, squealing "weeeeeeeeee" as they were trying to swing higher and higher and yelling "you can't catch me" in a game of tag.

My first instinct was to tell my kids to keep it down but then I thought WHAT?????? No way. My kids are having fun, why tell them to keep it down because someone decides that this is noise? It got me really upset so I posted this event on Facebook and got a mob of support and responses from all my friends. Including one of my very close friends who has no kids and wrote "I'm just like that neighbor!!!!!"

Hmmmmmm. Really? Her name is Laura and she is one of the coolest people I know. How could she be one of 'those' neighbors?

So I decided to ask her if she would agree to be interviewed as the token neighbor who does not appreciate the sounds of children. She lives 40 minutes away from me so I think we will always remain friends, but she graciously accepted the challenge and here is what she had to say:

An Inteview with Laura

1. You are a happily married 40 something woman who is the proud mama of 2 cats. In a few words, tell us a little more about yourself so we have an idea of who we are talking to.

I am a 48 yr old married woman who consciously chose to not have children.  I like children, but only from afar.  There are some kids that I am closely connected to, but I was not their primary caretaker and so I never really had to hang around past the time my attention had expired.  In the last few years I adopted two cats and I love my cats.  Cats can do no wrong in my eyes.  My husband loves kids and is very good with them, he has much more patience than I do.  I work hard, travel a lot and generally spend a lot of time at home with my cats.  I can always find similarities between children and my cats.

2. Do a lot of children live in your neighborhood and describe the ambiance of the neighborhood you live in.

Luckily, not a lot of kids live in my neighborhood.  There have been long intervals of time that children lived directly next door, but never more than a year.  I do not like to live in places with a lot of children.  My neighborhood tends to be very quiet with million dollar views.  It is very tranquil.

3. In general, do you enjoy the company of children?

Absolutely.  When the children belong to the people who are dear to me.  I do not go out of my way to hang out with kids, feel the need to work in preschools, attend children's parties or do anything remotely related to children unless I know the parents.  If I know the parents, I am more than happy to hang out, play, babysit for short amounts of time, whatever it takes to connect with those kids because I love the parents and it's the right thing to do.

4. When you get annoyed by the sounds coming from your neighbors children, is it because they are whining and crying or playing loudly (yelling, squealing, laughing)?

There were some children that lived next door that came from a dysfunctional single parent home.  They were not supervised.  The one child had autism.  They were the loudest, screamiest little monster kids ever.  I hated the noise that they created and tried to just focus on the fact that they had a hard life and it wasn't their fault.  But boy were they noisy, I hated it.  Now, in the house behind me there are kids who are well adjusted, the sounds of them simply playing during the day is loud, but it kind of registers differently in my brain.  I'm slightly annoyed, but it passes.  You would never find me living next to an elementary school.  I'd rather live next to a prison.

5. How does it make you feel when you are disturbed by these sounds? Do you judge the parenting skills of your neighbor or is it simply the children that are bothering you?

As an astute observer, which I am, you can tell what the parenting skills are of the parents by the way the children behave.  If they are screaming and cursing and throwing fits each time they want to communicate, than we got a problem.  If children are simply screaming in delight, yes it's disturbing to me, but the kids are just playing.  You can't get all bent out of shape for normal daily activity. 

6. Would you like your neighbors to change their children's behavior to make you happier and improve the quality of your life?

Absolutely not.  My emotions are my problem.  If I witnessed child abuse, I would certainly report it, but other than that it is none of my business. I would simply choose to live somewhere else if possible.  If I felt that the parents were out of line, I would address the parents directly, but never the children.

7. If you could give a message to moms out there (the few thousand reading this post) on how to handle neighbors like you, who are annoyed by the sounds of their children, what would it be?

That not everyone is a mother.  Not everyone can handle raising children.  Though the chaos of your family is your everyday normal, it is not normal for a single adult or a quiet person with no kids.  Just as you would want people to have compassion for you when out in public dealing with a tantrum, the cranky neighbor should be shown compassion for their disposition too.  Try to communicate with them.  They may just be in judgement of you because they don't know who you are or why you have so many kids.  Try to interact with them and engage them with your children.  Communication goes a long way.  Maybe your neighbor is suffering in some way and your children can actually help them.  One never knows.

In the end, I am very happy I had no children.  It is not in my dispostion to be selfless.  Because I have no kids, I have lots of free time for self discovery and psychology to make myself a better person, which means although I sit in my house and write diatribes on Facebook about the noisy brats next door, I would never ever say anything to a child or a beleaguered parent that would harm them.  In the end, we are all God's children.

****************************

Thank you Laura. What I took to heart from this interview is Laura's advice on communication. It just dawned on me that none of my next door neighbors or neighbors across the street from us ever complained about the noise coming from my house (at least not to me). And that's because they all know my kids. We take walks in the evenings in our PJ's and the neighbors all wave and my kids wave back. They let my kids come pet their dogs, they have a relationship with me and my husband. They see the kids playing, riding their bikes. They see me holding them when they cry if they fall and get a boo boo.  The 'complaining' neighbors live behind us in another neighborhood, so to them, its the 'noisy kids next door' not the adorable little munchkins that everyone else sees. 

My compassion goes only so far, and while I am not planning on inviting these neighbors over to meet my kids, I may print out this blog post and stick it in their mailbox to assure them that I understand that they may not enjoy the noise, but I refuse to keep my kids inside watching TV, playing video games or any other sort of indoor entertainment to keep them quiet so the neighbors will be happy. Kids will be kids, and as long as they are safe and healthy and happy, chances are they will be noisy. And if someone does not enjoy the sounds of kids, there are many neighborhoods and retirement homes that cater to that group.

Wishing you all a wonderful week!

Always, 

 

Still Waters Run Deep... getting personal with Mayim Bialik

Mayim Bialik

I am sure most of you remember reading my fabulous interview on fellow Jewish homeschooling mama, Mayim Bialik. I just want to mention that aside for the fact that her children are homeschooled,  she has a B.S. in Neuroscience and Hebrew and Jewish Studies and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience. Mayim is also the author of the fantastic book, Beyond the Sling: A Real-Life Guide to Raising Confident, Loving Children the Attachment Parenting Way. Oh, and in her 'spare' time, she writes a weekly blog for for the Jewish parenting site Kveller.com and I may have forgotten to mention that she was nominated for an Emmy for her work on the hilarious TV show The Big Bang Theory.

Another thing you should know about Mayim is that she is also extremely human. She is smart, she is down to earth and she deals with her life's challenges with such integrity that I thought it would be a real treat to have her share some of her wisdom and experiences with us.

Mayim graciously agreed to do an interview on the current events of her personal life. She was vulnerable, she was open and she was so honest. I was moved by many of the things she said and I am sure you will all walk away from this interview with at least one thing that hits home.

**********************

An Interview with Mayim Bialik

Q: We all go through our own set of challenges in life. Right now, you are going through a divorce from your husband of 9 years. You also homeschool your 2 children, ages 4 and 7. Surely they have questions. What is your approach when your kids ask? Are you open with them and share with them exactly what is going on? Are you vague? And do you have any specific reason for the approach you have with your kids when filling them in?

At the ages of 4 and 7, the questions are very limited. Our younger son is only recently fluent verbally so as we were told to expect, questions from the 7-year-old mainly revolve around how, if at all, his daily life will change with the changes going on. It was suggested to us by the child specialist we spoke to, and using the book "The Truth About Children and Divorce" by Robert Emery, that it is age appropriate and normal for children to be "egocentric" and that you don't need to speak to them at a level they're not ready to operate at simply because you understand things at a more sophisticated level. In general, in all arenas of parenting, I never lie but I may choose to keep certain things private and age appropriate since children can be easily overwhelmed by too much information and too much sophisticated information, especially emotionally speaking. Since I am not an expert in child development or family therapy, we have relied heavily on support from professionals who deal with this, as well as friends who have gone through it and the aforementioned book.


Q: You clearly seem very level headed and things seem very civil between you and your soon to be ex- but surely there are times when things might seem overwhelming and all you want to do is be by yourself. But being a working actor as well as a homeschooling attachment parent, alone time is hard to come by. How do you deal with those difficult moments when your little guys need your attention but your mind is simply not there?

Being alone is always something that's been important to me and becoming a parent can be a real scary challenge to those of us who value alone time. Part of our decision to not use outside help for child care has gotten me accustomed to learning to simply be there for my kids. It's hard not being able to run away and sometimes I want to, but at those times, I do what one of my mentors who has older kids has told me to do: be gentle on myself, eliminate superfluous commitments, order in dinner or serve leftovers (I've been known to feed my sons canned vegetarian beans and corn for dinner, which they love!), and go to sleep when the kids do so that sleep deprivation doesn't add to my desire to run away!


Q: As women, we are very emotional and hormonal creatures and personal challenges can often bring us to tears (guilty as charged). Kids don't quite know what to do when they see their mommy cry or feel sad/down. Have you been sad or cried in front of your kids, and is there anything you say or do to help them deal with it?

I have "lost it" in front of my kids and they have certainly seen me cry. What I've been told is that it's important to not pretend you're fine when it's clear that you're not because even very young children know when your words don't match your affect. It's also important to communicate that, although you are upset/sad/frustrated, you will be okay and that you can handle what's going on. Sometimes I'll tell my boys that I need a mommy time-out so that I can compose myself, rather than make them feel in any way responsible for making me feel better. My older son in particular is very empathetic and sensitive and both of my boys like to give me a kiss when they see I'm upset. I make sure to use this as my wake-up call to thank them for the kiss and try and move on so that they don't continue to feel responsible for making me feel better.


Q: You and Mike obviously are working things out very civilly  but whether you are married, divorced, getting divorced or a single parent, we all have arguments with our significant other. Are there any methods of communication that you use with Mike to get through difficult conversations/arguments when the kids are present?

It's very important to know when to stop communicating almost more than it's important to know to continue communicating. I think it's important to not have extended emotionally difficult conversations in front of children and I also think it's important to model civility in arguments, never name call, and let children hear you use phrases such as, "I'm really upset right now and it's hard for me to think straight. I'd like to discuss this later. I appreciate you respecting that." 

Q: Finally, do you have any specific words of encouragement and/or advice for other homeschooling moms/attachment style parents who are going through their own set of challenges- be it a divorce, an illness, financial issues etc. who are with their kids for extended amounts of time during the day and need to "be on and be present" with their kids without the 'luxury' of being able to fall apart?

My suggestions would be the ones I've been given, which I mentioned above: go easy on yourself, know that no parent is perfect, there is no parent who never gets upset, yells when they don't intend to, or acts selfishly when they ought to act selflessly. Children are resilient but they're also incredibly fragile. The tension and balance of their existence depends on our ability to manage it for them and for ourselves as well. I'm told that if we are okay, our children will be okay too. It's not fun going through a divorce, but I try to be guided by honesty, compassion, and always looking towards the big picture and wanting the best for my children as the children of a divorced couple.

**************************

Thank you Mayim.

Wishing you all a wonderful week~

Always,

MAUI KOSHER COOKBOOK- Click Here to Purchase

30 Sensory Activities for learning the Hebrew Letters of the Alef Bet

Here are 30 Sensory Activities for learning the Hebrew Letters of the Alef Bet

Click Here to Download and Print them out!

Enjoy~

Always, 

 

Save 15% on CAP IT from now until Pesach using code HS15  at check-out!