Misheh, misheh nichnas.. ADAR, Jewish Moms!

[Kmelion]

Welcome to Adar ladies! Purim is in 2 weeks so let's hear all about it...

Costumes? Do you dress up too? What do you give for Mishloach Manot (heretofore referred to as MM)? What are you having for Seudah?

So I'll start... my daughters are with their dad this year and my husband is working (boo, hiss!) so it's just me and the boys.

We're dressing up as pirates (I'll even be making a Jolly Roger for the carriage) and our MM will be... yo ho hos and a bottle of rum... I'll be making a homemade, non-dairy version of ho hos and giving out a small bottle of rum.

For Seudah we'll be joining a few other families for a pot luck meal. My contribution will be broccoli noodle kugelettes (cooking right now to be frozen), carrot kugel 'muffins' and I'll be making cole slaw.

[DarkPassenger]

I am also working. We submit our schedule requests 2 months in advance and I have had pneumonia for 6 weeks, missed a lot of work plus it has been slow this year so I have only worked half my regular shifts. When I put my request in I was like PLEASE LET ME WORK anything anything!!!! And of course weekends are hard to staff.

Purim is like my favorite holiday (I just like to drink, and I am an introvert so I get to be a little bananas under the comfortable umbrella of my community for a couple days, if that makes sense). I work the 27th AND the 28th!!! I will still go and listen to the megillah sat. night. I need my kids to at least hear it read once. But I can't dedicate all the time to it. My boyfriend is sad and is frustrated I didn't plan better. We love our rav and the community we have here, small as it is. So I will participate a little one night. I am so tired, from being sick and catching up on work, and broke, I think I will wear an old costume. A sexy red wig with devil horns. Not sure about the clothing yet. It is a very orthodox crowd.

Now I need to think of a few cute baskets. I am so happy I have time. I am hoping I can make it fun with my kids and boyfriend coming up with ideas and the possible baking, assembly, and delivery. I still haven't asked him if he wants to come over and do this with us. We are both really observant but like almost opposite. He will turn a light on at my house on shabbat, or forget I have pre-torn TP and tear some, but then when I take a sip of water during a fast (yom kippur) he gasps! But his version of kosher is he will order mcdonalds food as long as his burger has no cheese!!! We are always, not bickering, but trying to elevate one another. We plan to marry but I want to make sure he will start to be stronger first. Maybe he thinks the same of me.

Seudah... Not happening. I am working shabbos. Well, I work at the hospital saturday. I hate doing it. Usually I am pretty good about scheduling, but it has been a hard year. Very hard. I got 2 months behind in bills and it is effecting my credit and everything.

I keep every minute I can when I get in this position. I have a beautiful beginning, friday night candle lightings and blessings and every mitzvot I can until the last second I have to leave for work. Even at work, I do everything in my power to observe whatever I can. I feel like I am defending myself, but sometimes I gotta do what I gotta do.

Every moment I am observing shabbat, it is still, such a gift. When I open my eyes and take that first breath after my candles have been lit and my bracha (brachot!!) has been said I feel transported, like to a secret getaway, a most relaxing vacation. Another world. And all who are observing with me are on this major love trip, acid trip without the acid. LOL. I sound

I owe my Yemenite friend jachnun this shabbat or next. Or next, or next. The first schedule I get back to normal I will do it.

Wowza, I am tonight

I'm just sad I am missing most of my fave day this year.

[jul511riv]

here. nak.

[Nickarolaberry]

Purim....

Well, so far I have a "Mexican Lady", a Queen Esther (have to dig up a crown), and a yet to be determined...King Ahashverosh/Batman/Superman/Firefighter because my 4 year old ds is, shall we say, undecided.

Mishloach manot...we will make hamantaschen. I usually go very simple with this; purchase party bags at Walmart (20 for $.99) and fill them with a hamantasch, box of raisins, and some candy/nosh, and we close with some pretty ribbon and a homemade sticker label. I am not into themes and not good at it in any event, so this is our shtick. Besides, here no one will mind or be holding others to standards in this regard.

Seudah...making our own; maybe I'll invite some guests. Haven't decided yet. I do have to order meat though, that's on my list of Things To Do.

[npl]

Was really planning on keeping everything very simple. Between dh's avelus, and my need to really take it easy, we thought we'd do the minimums for the mitzvos and enjoy the day more that way.
Then, we realized that there are many people who are likely to give us really nice MM, giving to the family rather than directly to dh.
So, dh and I will still do our one nice MM for the sake of the mitzva, but it will all be purchased food this year (I usually do home baked cake and challah), and then I'm keeping the others simple - I found nice pretzels on sale and I'll find some candies or halva to put with it for the adults. I will put them in gift bags if I have time/energy to buy them, otherwise just big ziploks with generic labels. Kids each get to give to 3 friends each year, usual presentation of a paper lunch bag with a big clown picture for a tag that they colour themselves. I found individual packs of teddy bear cookies, and some chocolate and juice boxes.
We are not delivering till later in the afternoon, in the hopes that everyone will come to us first, because dh doesn't feel comfortable driving around town with all the festivities, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to drive much by that stage.
Seuda is just family - us, my MIL and her aunt. It will be strange not to have my FIL with us. Menu will be simple. Possibly chicken soup with kreplach, some kind of roast with potatoes and root veggies, rice and a green veg. My MIL will probably bring hamentashen for dessert, but it's not usually hard to find dessert amongst the MM spoils!
DH and I don't dress up, though I might pull out my jester's hat.
One ds is being David Hamelech in warrior mode. Most of his costume is from the other ds' knight costume from last year. Need gold poster board for the crown, and to fix the sleeves on the tunic. He wants a new sword, too.
Other ds is going to be a sheriff. We need boot covers, holsters and a badge - probably all coming from the dollar store.
DD is doing her own. Not sure what she's planning on being (keeps changing) but she is intent on creating it herself, so I'm not complaining!

[JessicaA622]

I'm attempting to make our costumes this year (sort of). We're going to be superheroes. My son will be Superman, my hubby will be Flash and I'll be Wonder Woman. Pretty much just have to sew a cape onto my son's t-shirt, lol, but since I've never sewn before it's kind of scary.

For MM I'm making whole wheat challah rolls and chummos. Plus cutting up some bell pepper and putting a few pieces in each. I'm going to attempt to make the bag that holds everything out of the paper bags that I've been "collecting" from the farmers market.

As for the seudah, we're eating it at my parents. We're having a make-your-own sub type thing. Not my favorite thing in the world, but at least I'm with family (and don't have to make the seudah myself!)

[smeisnotapirate]

Subby!

Our Purimspiel this year is "The King and Oy." I get to be Haman (boo) and Queen Vashti. If anyone is free Sunday, Feb 28 at 1pm and wants to see the show, let me know. Should be a good time.

[imnottelling]

Kids have pirate costumes, making broccoli pies I think, and giving some chocolate coins in a pirate goody bag (gotta love the dollar store!). Any other ideas?

[Magelet]

dark passenger, . It's so hard working on shabbat when you want to be home with your family, doing shabbat.

As for purim, I have no idea. I've never celebrated it before, and while I do want to, I have nothing planned, and no ideas exactly what one DOES on purim.

[merpk]

Originally Posted by Magelet

As for purim, I have no idea. I've never celebrated it before, and while I do want to, I have nothing planned, and no ideas exactly what one DOES on purim.

Chabad.org's Purim "how to."

And a google of "Purim" will get you unlimited links. Well, okay, limited to about a million-five.

Enjoy. It's fun. Kids love it. Though in the States it's a little harder, because you're walking around in costume when nobody but nobody else is except the few Jews brave enough to feel silly in public. Here (Israel) it's positively ... delicious. L'havdil, like Halloween with everyone in costume, but thank G!d not like Halloween in that there are very few dark/death-related costumes. Lots of happiness and joy, very little darkness and scariness.

[flminivanmama]

Update on Gilla's daughter for those of you not on the FB group -

Leora is currently in pre-op: MRIs and tests preparing for surgery early Wednesday morning. Please keep Leora Perel bat Gilla Shulamit in your prayers for a full and speedy recovery.

[Kmelion]

Can I have a link to the FB group?

[flminivanmama]

she has two - one her friends started
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/p...9370336?ref=nf
and one Gilla started http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/g...7251&ref=share

[tikva18]

subbing. Somehow I got unsubbed from the other thread. Purim: not too sure what we're doing yet. I'd like to get together with another family for the seuda - but it doesn't look like that's happening. I haven't done anything about costumes yet either. Shalach manos: I'm thinking simple - probably a vegetable tray again (did that a couple of years ago) - chummos in the middle isn't a bad thought. I will make my own hamentaschen - probably 1 batch gf and another batch regular - filling will be homemade chocolate in one and peach? in the other.

I'm pretty stressed out right now. I took my blood sugar on a whim and it's high. I'm not looking forward to Purim now . I am, but I'm not - because I was (changed abruptly after discovering high blood sugar) a big nosher. Right now every food has to meet my standards of being low enough on the glycemic index for me to eat it. I've lost 4 lbs so far. (this since last week - and I'm not really overweight).

[DashsMama]

Wanted to thank Kmelion for the Portland mikvah link. I had no idea that there was another mikvah here in town. That's good to know. We weren't able to make it out to the hot springs this last weekend, but I still would like to go and see if that would be a nice option. I've never been to a real mikvah before (used the ocean for my conversion) and am nervous about going, or even calling really. Among other things, I've got psoriasis, a skin condition that looks horrible and causes me to produce lots of flakes, and I'm not sure it would really be appropriate for me to use a "real" mikvah.

I haven't even started thinking about Purim yet. We've all been sick with some sort of head/chest cold this last week, and everything has gotten away from me. I bought the book 1000 Jewish Recipes for myself for Chanukah. I think I'll try at least one of the Hamantaschen recipes from there.

I've joined the facebook groups for Leora and will keep her in my prayers.

Glad I've stopped lurking and joined you all!

[smeisnotapirate]

Faye Levy's hamentaschen recipe rocks! I hope you love it as much as we do. I prefer apricot filling, myself.

[SeattleRain]

I can't believe its already Purim! My husband and I are doing a Jersey Shore theme as we got into the ridiculousness of the show this year with some friends. I'm dressing as (a pregnant) Snooki in a hot pink knit dress and a long black wig with a big "pouf." My husband is going as Vinny in a sparkly Ed Hardy t-shirt and a trucker hat.

I don't know what we're going to do for MM.

[merpk]

Thinking about Leora today (it's already Wednesday morning here).

Purim is too close. Thank G!d my two big ones are hoping to be homemade ... DD#1 has various "western" looking things, fringe vest, brown boots, etc., so she's a cowgirl, I guess. DS#1 is Moishe'le the water carrier (listen to any of R' Shlomo's tapes to hear stray tales/mentions of the heilege Moishe'le) which basically consists of a worn-out shirt and torn pants, a broomstick over the shoulders, and two buckets.

The other two ... oy. At least the boys' school has insisted on no movie characters, which saves us from DS#2's initial request for a Darth Vader costume. Now he wants to be a shoter (cop), which works for me. And little pitz'ke'le in gan wants to be Esther, natch. Hoping we can find a dress that isn't too destroyed in the dress-up box ...






She went to another birthday party yesterday, and I was once again so happy to hear about it. Such a huge difference here from the birthday parties in the States ... games are all homemade, arts&crafts are down-to-earth, no fancy kits involved ... so much less pressure involved for the rest of us who have yet to make a party for the year, you know? The whole outdo-the-world-in-birthday-party-excess of the Upper West Side was kind of overwhelming. Is it like that in the rest of the States, or was it all just some kind of NY meshugas? (And maybe was it our being the semi-poverty-case in the community that made me hate it so?)

Whatevah.




Hi, all.

[Justmee]

Hey all! We're staying around here for Purim. The girls chose costumes from last year so : for not having to go out and buy new ones. Avraham Tzvi is going to be the tiger Rena was a 2. We might head into Y-m for Shushon Purim.

[Faliciagayle]

For MM: Planning on baking hamentaschen and giving out to friends. Probably won't dress up unless we go to a schpiel just because, well, I have a new born and a toddler and I don't really leave the house much, at the moment.

Seuda, I was thinking a roast lamb but that's entirely dependent upon my ability to get to the butcher.

Maybe some of the NY moms can help me? http://mothering.com/discussions/sho....php?t=1196180


how's LWAB, jul511riv?

how are you feeling, smeis??