Misheh, misheh nichnas.. ADAR, Jewish Moms! - Page 3

[Magelet]

I'm going to go to an allergist to try to get it tested for sure, if they can.

The reason the doctor thought it was the ibuprofin is because of the combination of the two. He said that sharp gi tract pain resulting from hives in the gi tract, and swelling in the mouth from hives are both common to a documented reaction to ibuprofin. Yeah, if it were in the stomach, I would suspect that as well, but it was actually in my bladder region, not my stomach. the bladder pain was over by the time I ate the fish, and my tonuge swelled up, except a few last residual shoots of milder pain. he also said that hives were about the only skin thing he knew that came and went so fast (though the bladder is definitely not skin).

Thanks, I'll look into B6, E, calcium and magnesium. Interestingly enough B6, calcium and magnesium are things on my list of nutritional tests I want to do (have a call in to the doc about them, he said he'll try to get back to me this week), for depression issues. Interesting that they're important for cramps and pms too.

mmmmh epsom salt baths. yum. I definitely love hot baths on my period, and I always put epsom salts in my baths. thanks for the reminder.

[Ruthla]

Red raspberry leaf tea is also helpful for cramps.

[merpk]

Things are starting to look up here. Today they are, anyway. And I'll take any improvement over the utter crap it has been. So I need music to work by.

So I don't know if I've posted this here yet, so forgive if this is a repeat of a previous post, but for anyone who's looking to hear shiurim and also hear great music (well, if you're into a certain kind of music ... namely rock & blues & the Greatness of the Grateful Ones, ha'meyvin yavin/if you get my drift) some very good friends of ours have started an online streaming radio station. Incredible place, incredible people, incredible music, and mind-bending soul-opening Torahs.

http://radiofreenachlaot.blogspot.com/.

Try it. You'll like it.

[jul511riv]

this message has been brought to you by, merpk a

[imnottelling]

How're the pesach preps going, peeps?
Trying to go through our chometz. We're up to the point that my boys (4.5 and 3) decided to "write" a shopping list for me of what we need. They made sure to write "big heart pretzels" (amish type) because we are basically out of carby snack foods.

[Magelet]

Pesach prep hasn't really started here yet.


I'm trying to decide if I should ask for the day before the first evening of passover off, to prep for our seder. I also know the idea of hosting a seder (even jointly with my dad) is insane, since I'm the primary cook. and I work the day before so it's not like I can get a ton of stuff done then. Which means I should go and try to get coverage for my shift now, since I've decided I should.

I grew up celebrating passover, but no passover prep (as a kid just a seder, as a teen, not eating chometz, but in a family that did). I'm taking a class on passover prep tonight, and then I guess we'll start.

I asked to be matched up with someone for the second night seder, since I feel woefully inadequate to lead a seder for our family, and a) want to experience a different kind of seder and b) better learn how to lead a seder.

(the task seems to fall on me as the "most jewish" or "most interested" member of the family.) any tips on leading a seder would be appreciated (particularly a seder for a family of adults with only 1 kid (8). If we had lots of kids in the family, it wouldn't bug me so much that it would be a kid's/family seder, but it's not really, it's just a dumbed down/protected (aka not mentioning that the jews were slaves, just that they had a fight with the pharoh and weren't friends) adult seder. after the seder and she finishes her meal, she goes and watches a movie.)

[flminivanmama]

I can't do pesach prep till the last minute - literally! my kids, even though they are growing up and getting better... are awful about keeping things clean and not eating all over the house. my 10 year old for instance will wake up at 4 am and take a box of cereal to the couch and eat straight from the box. no amount of yelling, begging or pleading gets him to not do this. he's probably half asleep when he does it anyway....

[Magelet]

holy crap. I was just reading the kashering for passover stuff on our (conservative synagogue's) pesach guide. (our shul/community is as a community standard using the rabbinical assembly pesach guide 2008 as a basis btw).

ummm... help?

So I can't kasher my plates/bowls, my pyrex baking dishes, my baking sheet, etc? the plates have me really worried. do we have to do paper plates? That is so enviromentally wasteful. We can't afford new plates. (heck, we only have three atm, one for each of us and one for the cat lol) If we could buy used plates we could maybe afford new ones, but that defeats the purpose, since then they'd have to be kashered too, and they can't.

Also, so basically, I can't use any of the same bakeware? no baking? we use the oven a lot. does enameled cast iron cookware that is used for cooking and baking count as glass cookware? or what?

How do I clean my oven? the pilot light keeps it hot enough to... well I don't think it will burn, but it's way too hot to comfortably touch. (I use a towel to take a metal bowl that's had bread rising in it in the oven to take it out. it's too hot to touch comfortably, but doesn't kill yeast.)

I have to wait 24 hours between cleaning pots and immersing them in boiling water? what do I feed us in between? if the water has to be actively boiling... what about my pots that don't fit into another pot? what about my cast iron? boiling it will ruin the seasoning.

When do I do this? I presume after all this kashering is done, I can't use chametz on them, right? so ummm does it all have to be done the day of or the day before? otherwise we'd be chametz free for a long time... I'm working sunday, hopefully will get monday off to prep for pesach.

Also, when do I do the cleaning of the house for passover? I guess that last day? because otherwise, we'd just get chametz there again?

Also, is there a point to kashering my dishes for pesach, if they aren't kashered in general?

Also, I have a lot of wood in my kitchen (cutting boards, utensils, bowls). The rabbinical assembly guide for 2010 says that wood (counters) can be kashered. can I safely assume the other wood can be kashered the same way?

I took our rabbi's pesach prep class and while it answered some questions, it was just too much info, leaving me with more questions on others. It's not like shabbat where there's an easy place to start.

Sorry, I just don't want to bug my rabbi with these questions if they're obvious to lots of other people. (he said he gets so so many emails this time of year, and to please keep any questions we have concise as possible, though we were welcome to email him). I'm really quite excited, if a little intimidated.

[Faliciagayle]

breathe, caroline!

Not a politically correct thing to ask, but how kosher are your guests? How kosher are you? What level of "kosher l'Pesach" are you comfortable with? Actually kashering your kitchen to an orthodox or conservative level is a pretty big undertaking, esp if you've never done it before. We've been kashering our kitchen for years and just now are we on an Orthodox level. .. not that the orthodox mamas here would eat at my house, just sayin'

(and quickly, no, once your kitchen is kosher for passover, do not bring in chametz because then your kitchen is no longer kosher for passover)

Enamelware can't be kashered, ever. Plates can't be kashered, ever. Buy picnic ware from Joanns or the dollar store and reuse it the entire time and use it this summer on your picnics, or box it and save it for next years Pesach.

Only you can answer the question "is there a point to kashering" for yourself. You can kasher to a level you can live with, you know? I would totally talk to you rabbi, s/he's there for this reason. Passover is trixie, lotsa rules, if you're confused, ask! YOu can pm me your email addy and I can send over what our conservative shul from WI sent out as kashering guidlines.


Why do you have to keep slavery away from the kids? Pesach is a gruesome story... there's an entire cottage industry just for plague toys. I personally wouldn't censor the story.

[Magelet]

Thanks. I think I need to stop posting late at night after work, somehow, it makes things.... grow way out of proportion lol.

We aren't hosting the seder, I think our family seder will be hosted by my dad and me at my dad's house. No one besides me is at all kosher (or keeps kosher for passover afaik.) It's unlikely we'll have many guests over to our place at all, and if we do, it would be a couple of friends who don't normally keep kosher (though may keep some form of kosher for passover. I imagine they'd be ok with stuff not kashered).

Actually reading some of the orthodox guidelines for kashering helped me a lot. Aish was talking about chametz "taste" getting from the steam into the steam hood.... it made me realize about where my comfort level is.

I'm not sure about the pots and pans (I'm thinking probably a thorough cleaning and rinse in hot hot water), and not using the cast iron (Any way I kasher them, or even clean them thoroughly will ruin the seasoning.). And since I've been loving on grilled cheese lately, I'm sure their every pore is filled with chametz. I might see if we can get new plates, but I think it would be more about a "reminding us that passover is different" thing than actually worried at this point that the taste of chametz in the plate. I'm not sure.

I guess it's also true that just cleaning up the chametz, even just by vacuming (purposefully to clean chametz, vs vacuming whenever it's time to vacume) etc, is a lot more than I did last year.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks its pretty reasonable/important to talk about slavery with kids even if it is upsetting (it should be! it is to adults too, unless we forget or are detached.) I mean, it's her parents, and I guess their decision to make, but to me, it's highly unreasonable.

[Faliciagayle]

This was posted on another site by an Orthodox mama

Magelet, you especially may enjoy this

http://www.ravaviner.com/2010/03/how...-cleaning.html

[Ruthla]

I personally use a lot of disposables just for the week of Passover, but over time I've slowly aquired reusable Passover items. For the Seder and other Yom Tov meals, it's just easier to not deal with washing dishes, so we use paper then. But I have enough dairy dishes that we hardly need to use paper for dairy. Last year I bought mugs to use for meat, so I wouldn't need to use any hot cups or as many foam bowls- if I want a bowl of soup, I can have a cup of soup instead.

ITA with the advice to think about "how kosher you want to be." You're taking baby steps, so do what you're comfortable with and don't worry about what you aren't able (or willing) to do this year. Maybe you'll do more next year, or maybe you won't do more until 10 years from now. Either way is OK.

I've done a whole lot of mental prep for Pesach but not a whole lot of physical prep yet. I looked up my shopping list from last year, updated it, and printed it out. I've already bought some of the non-foods (contact paper to cover the counters, more plastic food storage containers, etc) but I'm waiting to buy the food itself. I should probably do so this week, before the store starts running out of stuff- I do have room in the basement to store it, far away from my chametz kitchen.

I also printed out my to-do list for cleaning the house, but so far all I can check off on that list is "print up the to-do list for cleaning the house."

[LambQueen]

Originally Posted by merpk

Things are starting to look up here. Today they are, anyway. And I'll take any improvement over the utter crap it has been. So I need music to work by.

So I don't know if I've posted this here yet, so forgive if this is a repeat of a previous post, but for anyone who's looking to hear shiurim and also hear great music (well, if you're into a certain kind of music ... namely rock & blues & the Greatness of the Grateful Ones, ha'meyvin yavin/if you get my drift) some very good friends of ours have started an online streaming radio station. Incredible place, incredible people, incredible music, and mind-bending soul-opening Torahs.

http://radiofreenachlaot.blogspot.com/.

Try it. You'll like it.

Merpk- would you say that this is also a Shlomo-inspired site? As I'm the moderator of our local Shlomo minyan's email list, I am thinking I'd like to send it out to our chevre.

How lovely it is to be here with our holy sistas. The spirituality is emanating from all of us. Us Jewish moms , all natural family livers.

Pesach? In denial. I would like to brag , though, that I cleaned the minivan yesterday, and the 2 car seats, and all the crumby crumbs. It took 2 hours, yes indeedy.

I got word from a local rav that Extra Virgin Coconut oil is no problem for pesach! Yay! How relieved am I to be able to bake desserts with a healthy oil. And frozen fruit. No hechsher needed! And raw nuts, same deal (so I went to Trader Joe's to get raw nuts at the best price and not get ripped off by the K for P brands). Ah, life in my corner of the kashrut world is very, very good. And almond milk! All good for me who has medical reasons to eat kitniyot (I am lactose intolerant and dont' eat dairy...even though the soy lecithin would become batul or nullified as long as purchased pre-pesach.

Made a luckshen (noodle) kugle for this shabbat as it's totally not a food I EVER make any more these days (too Ashkenazi, brown, heavy for my tastes these days)...we have a friend coming over for his birthday and also whyn not indulge before Pesach.

[merpk]

Originally Posted by LambQueen

Merpk- would you say that this is also a Shlomo-inspired site? As I'm the moderator of our local Shlomo minyan's email list, I am thinking I'd like to send it out to our chevre.

It's *beyond* Shlomo-inspired. Everyone involved is khevre. And aren't you in the Holy Land of R'dale? The 'main man' behind it is the father&shver of the couple who were of your minyan's founders (I think they were the founders ... or at least it used to meet in their apartment for a time, anyway ... they made aliyah the year before we did).

Absolutely send it out. And thanks.



And why are we still posting on an Adar thread? It's Nissan (oy don't remind me am in denial entirely) ...

[jul511riv]

Originally Posted by LambQueen

I got word from a local rav that Extra Virgin Coconut oil is no problem for pesach! Yay! How relieved am I to be able to bake desserts with a healthy oil.

w/out a klp hechsher?!

link to nissan thread, please? nak

[Faliciagayle]

as you wish http://www.mothering.com/discussions....php?t=1207183

[jul511riv]

thx. ps I LOVE UR DIAPERS!!!!!!!

[MommyChani]

BH

Magelet, koshering dishes and everything is hard and time consuming although totally doable, that's why many people have separate sets for Pesach which are stored in the attic/basement, comes Pesach all you need to do is seal your chametz cabinets and take down your Pesach boxes. You can start small by buying the most essential pots and pans you need (at discount stores if money's an issue) and a few containers, knives and peelers, use plastic/paper cutlery and then, throughout the year when you come across good deals and when the pocket permits you can slowly start to build up your Pesach cabinet.

Good luck.