Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Erev chag

Last year, my Yom Tov preparations were, shall we say, somewhat lacking. Iyyar was still in the phase (that six-month-long phase) of nightly screamfests, I was catching up at work from twelve weeks out, Barak was still waking up hourly all night long, and I was in that state of advanced sleep deprivation where you are seeing double for hours on end and don't even notice anymore.

This year is better.

Okay, the last couple of weeks have been pretty chaotic. I haven't slept much, and the kitchen has been in a pretty constant state of disaster. I don't think Barak's had a vegetable since Sunday and all the male members of the household had blueberry waffles and milk or yogurt for dinner. But you know what? My kitchen is completely clean. My kids' room is clean. The back bedroom is ready for my FIL, who should be here IY"H within the hour, and there are vegetables and brown rice for him cooking on the stove (macrobiotic etc.) The freezer in the basement is loaded with foil pans and the 11 loaves of challah and a dozen rolls that Barak helped me make (he only put sprinkles on some of them.) We have broccoli kugel, pumpkin kugel, mushroom-barley kugel, and all of their kin; we have roast, and meatloaf, and chicken soup, and cabbage stuffed and fried; we have pumpkin cake and brownies and chocolate peanut butter Rice Krispie treats. The bottom shelf of the closet is full of grape juice and seltzer. We are stocked with tissues and diapers and wipes; I bought two new sippie cups for fleishigs; MHH made it to the keilim mikva with my new cookie sheets.

It's not totally perfect. Our bedroom is a mess, I haven't put away the laundry, and I have a billion work-related things to do tomorrow. We're out of cat litter, and I haven't made matzo balls, and I still have to make salads and the fresh vegetable-type dishes I couldn't do ahead; I didn't invite all the guests I probably should have, and I know that erev yom tov will be a scramble, because it always is.

But hey--it's a whole lot better than last year. Shana tova, everyone. May you be inscribed for a happy, healthy, and peaceful new year, with lots of good sleep, a minimum of screaming, only leak-free roofs, and lots and lots of nachas.

2 comments:

Alisha said...

Wow. You do all that and manage to write about it, too. How????

LC said...

Yum. Unless we have company, no one around here thinks about dessert - Friday nihgt has been too late for the kids, Shabbos day they're too full from (tuna, egg salad, noodles at) kidush in shul. And DH doesn't go looking for sweets unless it's a random Wednesday. But pb chocolate rice krispie treats sound *really* good.

My eldest has nosh for breakfast on Shabbos - kix & Reese's puffs cereals mixed in a bowl with milk.