Shabbat checklist – getting it all done on time!

  • December 25, 2015

  • December 25, 2015

These short winter Shabbats can be hectic! Sometimes it’s a heart-pounding, tense race to get ready on time, even though I wish it wasn’t. That is definitely something I need to work on. One way to manage is to have a good Shabbat list (or two). I just updated mine, and thought I’d share it with you!

task-to-do

First, I make a menu for each week and check things off as they are completed. Because that changes, I can’t have it on my laminated regular checklist.

My other list is a checklist. (You can download a copy of my Shabbat checklist in a word doc to get your started.) Each time I update it, I just print off a copy and try it out, and when I’m (mostly) satisfied with it, I laminate it and use dry erase markers to check it off as we go. I know things will get done and when they are done. And even better, when someone is helping, you can see what needs to be done at a glance!

What needs to be done varies with the house, the ages of any children, guests, etc. For winter, I even put “refill humidifiers” on my list because of how dry it is in our house. But there are some constants, both last minute (lights, blech) and things that can be done ahead of time (vacuum, set the table). I leave a few blank checkoff spaces to add things in as they come up, too. Here’s what is on my checklist now.

  • Vacuum and sweep main areas
  • Menu checked off (or adjusted)
  • Put up or turn off electronic toys
  • Set the table
  • Prep candles
  • Check beds and bathrooms
  • Check tissues and/or cut toilet paper
  • Lights taped as needed (with guests, or in our case for now, toddlers who love to play with lights)
  • Lights set (I have a list of the ones we leave on, and you can add in timers if you have them)
  • Set blech/hotplate/crockpot (timers, too)
  • Check dishwasher and oven: off

I also two Yom Tov additions on the bottom of my checklist so I know what needs to be added. They are:

  • Eruv Tavshillin (for a holiday running into Shabbat)
  • Light 3- day candle (to use to light candles on the next day)

Do you have a Shabbat checklist? What else do you have on it?

Permanent link to this article: https://organizedjewishhome.com/2015/12/25/shabbat-checklist-getting-it-all-done-on-time/

Hanuka (Hanukkah / Chanukkah) resources

  • December 9, 2015

  • December 9, 2015

Hanuka is already here (Dec 6 in 2015)! Or Hanukah, Hanukkah, Chanuka, Chanukkah…I tend go with the simplest of the myriad possibilities for spelling, but you do whatever works for you.

Each of the major Jewish websites has its own big Hanuka page with their own links. My favorite is Chabad‘s, because it has quite literally something for everyone – halacha, FAQ, how-tos, recipes, multimedia, kids… Aish also has a good one, complete with more recipes, videos, and kid’s fun. Torah.org has a decent selection as well.

Looking for a video lesson in latkes? Dying for delicious donuts? You can find video lessons for the kids (or yourself!) in making olive oil and see a Hanuka candle factory! Are you checking out crafts? Look on my Hanuka Pinterest board for more great ideas!

Choose from 50+ Hanuka videos in the Chabad multimedia section (including an astronaut’s Hanuka!). There are lots of Hanuka videos on Youtube, like the Maccabeats Miracle and Candlelight, the Fountainheads’ Light up the Night, and even an Elmo Hanuka segment and a Telly dreidel segment. Here are my favorite Hanuka books.

Here is a great link to free Jewish holiday music. (It’s from the Judaica Sound Archives – there are other holidays there, too, but you can choose what you’d like to listen to.) There are some good Hanuka albums there, including modern and very old options, in English, Hebrew, or Yiddish, Israeli, Chassidic, or Sephardic, children’s or adults’, etc.  You can find more music here, too. There is also a lot of Hanuka music on Amazon (to buy), like this with songs in English, Hebrew, Ladino, and Yiddish.

Jennifer over at Adventures in Mama-Land has a great list of online Hanuka ideas, too. There is also a Hanuka recipe blog party going on here. (Yep, I contributed my famous Mom’s Sour Cream Cookies recipe!)

Coloring pages for the holiday can be found at aish, chabad, and cookkosher as well as throughout the web–just google (or even better, Swagbucks) it!

Project ideas:
a felt menorah–allow the kids to “light” felt candles with felt flames (or they can cut and paste with paper)
a hand menorah–put the child’s hands with their thumbs touching, take a print–the double-wide thumb is the shamesh
a laminated menorah printed on a regular sheet of paper- let them decorate it with playdough or dry-erase markers (it erases easily)
How abut some easy, mess free latke frying for kids?

Macaroni and bean menora

  • Maccabee shields–cardboard, cut and decorated (my boys love these, but ours don’t last very long because the kids also make Maccabee swords out of sticks, straws, or whatever else they can find.)
  • You’re probably using lots of potatoes – why not carve some potato stamps to dip in paint and stamp?
  • cookies – whether you make them into “gelt” or just eat them, kids love cookies (some ideas here)
  • beeswax candles– buy a kit and roll the wax sheets around the wick. We make some to use in our family menorah each year
  • candles- buy a dipping kit and dip some candles!
  • play dreidel

A Hanukkah dreidel.

  • Make edible dreidels (Or with blue sugar rolled marshmallows, chocolate kiss bottoms, pretzel stems, or chocolate dipped marshmallows, or whatever your heart desires!)

  • learn some Hanuka songs, either singing or on a musical instrument, and sing or play while the candles burn
  • Make a fun kids’ menorah – for example, “glue” marshmallows to some cardboard with frosting, chocolate, or corn syrup and “light” them with birthday candles or pretzels and an appropriately colored m-n-m (stuck on with frosting).
  • Even Martha Stewart is getting into the Hanuka crafting fun!

What would you add?

Permanent link to this article: https://organizedjewishhome.com/2015/12/09/hanuka-hanukkah-chanukkah-resources/

Do you color?

  • November 29, 2015

  • November 29, 2015

I do. See?

Coloring

It’s something that is relaxing and kind of zen for me. When my kiddos are working peacefully, or we’re listening to an audiobook, or things are starting to feel a bit stressful, I can pull out my good colored pencils and take a few minutes to work on something for me. And apparently, I’m not alone!

Here’s where I got my coloring book.

Shalom coloring

So do you color?

Permanent link to this article: https://organizedjewishhome.com/2015/11/29/do-you-color/

Fast of the 17th of Tammuz

  • July 3, 2015

  • July 3, 2015

English: Western Wall (taken from women's sect...

English: Western Wall (taken from women’s section), Jerusalem (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s shiva Asar b’Tammuz over Shabbat, but the fast is pushed back to Sunday – the beginning of the three weeks. We fast in memory of the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem.

It’s a minor day fast, although long and hot in many parts of the world. Time to think about what to do with kids on a fast day and what to feed the kids. It’s time for last minute haircuts and prep.

Have an easy and meaningful fast!

Permanent link to this article: https://organizedjewishhome.com/2015/07/03/fast-of-the-17th-of-tammuz/

Tichel organization

  • June 2, 2015

  • June 2, 2015

I’m here, folks, just slow on the posting. But here is a project I did recently that I though some of you might appreciate!

Tichels are headscarves or hairwraps. I have been collecting for a while, but mine seriously needed some organization. I used a box, a drawer, and then this scarf hanger, but…it wasn’t working! This is the before picture:

Tichels before

 

There is a box that’s not in the photo with some tichels in there, too.

Then I saw this video from Rachel on Wrapunzel, and her beautiful scarf collection and storage inspired me to do something very similar. I measured the space I had available and then headed to Ikea.

Tichel parts

 

 

Because of the size I have, regular curtain rods wouldn’t work. However, Ikea has flexible curtain wires that can go around corners and into irregular spaces called Dignitet. I bought one set with the wire and 4 more  corner supports. I came home and got to work installing three rows of wire. (It’s all one wire, but it’s put into 3 rows).

IMG_3241

Then I started tying on my tichels. At first, I thought to just set them on the wire to save space. However, I quickly saw that brushing them wrong means a rain of tichels – not good for keeping things neat!

SoI tied them all on, including my sashes on the vertical wire along the left. If you do something like this, I recommend starting from the top, though. It got a little puffy when I kept having to tuck more scarves down behind the lower ones. But I’m really happy with the finished product!

IMG_3243

 

Although some of my triangle scarves needed to be kept on the other hanger.

IMG_3244

It looks a lot better, but I think I’ll need to figure out something for them in our next home. I also still have to find a good way to store the headbands and accessories I use. Any suggestions?

Check out this post for more great ideas on tichel organization!

 

Permanent link to this article: https://organizedjewishhome.com/2015/06/02/tichel-organization/

Air travel with kids

  • May 27, 2015

  • May 27, 2015

A few months ago, I flew internationally with my 5 kids and no other adults…do I qualify as an expert at this – or maybe just crazy?!

It was home to the US for a family wedding, so a really good trip. But over 24 hours door to door, 3 flights, and some serious time zone jumping makes for a rough trip any way it goes (especially when they try to seat you scattered throughout the plane for the longest flight!)

I’ve written about traveling with kids before (series starts here)

Other tips I pulled from this trip:

  • Bring balloons: uninflated, of course. Great to take an empty gate, inflate, and let them play. Don’t try to keep it to a smaller part of a full gate, though. It won’t work. Unless your kids aren’t quite as into it as mine are. And bonus points if you only tie the knot part way so it can be untied and reused. (I managed that the first time!)
  • Yogurt tubes in a “liquid”  (quart sized) ziplock. The size (2 oz) gets them through and they are a great snack. If you freeze them before hand they stay cool for a long time. We always bring sandwiches, but these we a nice supplement.
  • Speaking of food, baby food isn’t just for babies! We brought some applesauce baby food pouches and some of the older kids enjoyed them.
  • Sometimes a stroller isn’t for actually pushing the kids. It’s a baggage wain. I used a soft back carrier to wrangle my 1 year old and the rest walked unencumbered with their backpacks. The stroller was a bit heavy for me but it was 1am their body time and we were enroute to our third flight…
  • I always bring an extra reusable bag for jackets, wipes, etc.

Or is it just me who seems to pick up stuff that doesn’t fit into our bags as we go? Especially as we go through security yet again…

Any tips to add?

Permanent link to this article: https://organizedjewishhome.com/2015/05/27/air-travel-with-kids/

Shavuot is coming!

  • May 19, 2015

  • May 19, 2015

Quiche

Shavuot (Shavuoth / Shavuos) is the holiday where we celebrate the gift of our Torah. We’ve been counting toward it since Pesach, and now we are finally almost there!

Shavuot starts immediately after Shabbat this upcoming week. So for those of us who are living outside Israel, it’s a 3 day holiday – one day of Shabbat followed by two of Shavuot. That is a lot of prep work!

I just sat down with my kiddos and made our menu. It’s pretty basic – the kids are going to be helping with the cooking, and we have all dairy this year! If you’re looking for previous menus, check here: 2012, 2013, 2014.

Some of the recipes we’ve planned are:

  • Indonesian Peanut noodles
  • Spinach balls (similar to the spinach quiche, but pan fried and served with yogurt sauce)
  • Quinoa salad with roasted veggies
  • Macaroni and cheese (Wacky Mac!). From a box. Yes, really. (I  think the adults may be eating something else for this meal, but this was unanimous from the kids.)
  • Something else: Blintzes, lasagna, maybe Indian? (more ideas here)

So we’ve got some of our favorite foods in place and have planned to make a cheesecake bar (we’re making a plain cheesecake and serving with chocolate chips, caramel, and fruit) and cookies (lemon and snickerdoodles). We’ve planned for some greenery in our house and something exotic in the fruit department as well. Now to get shopping and cooking.

I hope your planning is going well!

Here are some other Yom Tov and Shavuot resources:

Permanent link to this article: https://organizedjewishhome.com/2015/05/19/shavuot-is-coming/

Passover- menu changes and how it’s going so far

  • April 6, 2015

  • April 6, 2015

Menu planning

You may remember my 2015 menu plan, written just a few short days ago. It looks great on paper, and I tried not to go too overboard and keep it flexible so we could get what seemed good for the day. But still, I found that things have changed since then. I’m not the only person that happens to, right?

Some of it is that I can’t find everything I’d like here (we’re not in the US), some of it is that the kids weren’t interested in some of what I offered, and some of it is timing. But what actually was eaten is different than the original plan. Here is how the first days of Yom Tov went:

Seders

All of the seder food (matza, marror, sandwich, hard-boiled egg, etc.)

(no one wanted any salads or spreads by that point…)

Matza Ball soup

Meatballs and rice / cauliflower rice

meringues / lemon sorbet (kids asked for no strawberries  in the sorbet this year)

That was it. Our seders start really late here, so we’d already fed the kids, and by 11:30pm, who wants a big meal? Note to self – mini-marshmallows during maggid are a good pick-me-up for tired kids.

For the yom tov lunches, everyone was still kind of sluggish after the late nights. The biggest hit was the salads and spreads. Here’s what I made:

Tomato (sauteed onions and garlic and diced tomatoes cooked until thick, with fresh basil and lemon)

smokey eggplant – baba ganoush

Turkish eggplant

zhug

red pepper and cashew spread

white bean dip (kitniyot)

I’m planning to add a hummus and some preserved lemons as well for the week. But those are enough to keep people happy.

Since it is cold and snowing(!) here, I made a garlic and ginger red lentil stew and some cinnamon ginger cookies for lunch on Sunday. Lunch on Shabbat went pretty much as planned since it was all prepared before hand.

Now we’re to chol hamoed, and I’m working on lunches and snacks to take. We’re doing leftovers, of course, but also rolls, matza pizza, omelettes, etc.

I hope your Passover has been happy, smooth, and meaningful!

 

 

Permanent link to this article: https://organizedjewishhome.com/2015/04/06/passover-menu-changes-and-how-its-going-so-far/

Dayenu – and our favorite acapella videos for Passover

  • March 30, 2015

  • March 30, 2015

Here is our latest favorite from the Maccabeats. (Seriously, I think this is our favorite right now – I didn’t wait until the end!)

From the Boys Town Jerusalem:

And two takes on a popular song out now – which do you like better?

(and)

Or how about Passover Rhapsody?

And last for today, this really awesome Rube Goldberg machine from Technion in Israel. (I know it’s not a capella, but we still really enjoyed watching it! I think it set some wheels turning in my boys’ heads, especially.)

I know there are others, some I haven’t even seen. Any good ones to add? What do you do as you work or  during breaks?

It’s almost Passover! 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

Permanent link to this article: https://organizedjewishhome.com/2015/03/30/dayenu-and-our-favorite-acapella-videos-for-passover/

More tips for traveling with small kids

  • March 24, 2015

  • March 24, 2015

mini-van

So I just flew internationally with my 5 kids and no other adults…do I qualify as an expert at this – or maybe just crazy?! It was home to the US for a family wedding, so a really good trip! But over 24 hours door to door, 3 flights, and some serious timezone jumping makes for a rough trip any way it goes (especially when they try to seat the 6 of you scattered throughout the plane for the longest flight. OK, stranger-who-won’t-trade-seats, here is my 1 year old and her diaper bag…)

I’ve written about traveling with kids before (series starts here).

Other tips I pulled from this trip:

-Bring balloons: uninflated, of course. Great to take an empty gate, inflate, and let them play. Don’t try to keep it to a smaller part of a full gate, though. It won’t work. Unless your kids aren’t quite as into it as mine are. And bonus points if you only tie the knot part way so it can be untied and reused. (I managed that the first time!)
–Yogurt tubes in a “TSA liquid approved”  (quart sized) ziplock. The size (2 oz) gets them through and they are a great snack. If you freeze them first, they stay cool for a long time. We always bring sandwiches, but these are a nice supplement.
-Speaking of food, baby food isn’t just for babies! We brought some applesauce baby food pouches and some of the older kids enjoyed them.
-Sometimes a stroller isn’t for actually pushing the kids. It’s a baggage wain. I used a soft back carrier to wrangle my 1 year old and the rest walked unencumbered with their backpacks. The stroller was a bit heavy for me but it was 1am their body time and we were enroute to our third flight, so moving was more difficult for them and important for me!
–Extra cloth bag for jackets, wipes, etc. Or is it just me who seems to pick up stuff that doesn’t fit into our bags as we go? Especially as we go through security yet again…

Do you have any tips to add? I’m always looking!

 

Permanent link to this article: https://organizedjewishhome.com/2015/03/24/more-tips-for-traveling-with-small-kids/