Avivah Werner

Category: Homemaking

  • How to prepare for an ice storm

    As some of you may know, significant numbers of people across the US were affected by this past week’s ice storm, thousands of whom won’t have any power for three weeks.  By the time this hit us, it wasn’t much of a storm (even though that’s what they were calling it on the news), though there were a lot of people who lost power for a short period of time.  But it got me thinking about sharing my thoughts on being prepared for a storm like this – because you don’t know how bad it will end up being until it hits.  And it’s lots better to be prepared and not need your preparations than not to prepare at all and end up having to go to a shelter somewhere.

    What would be some good things to do if you know that an ice storm (or any other kind of storm that would affect your power supply/access to stores) is set to come your way very soon?  This is far from an exhaustive list; there’s a lot more to be written on this, but what I’ll post now is intended as a starting point, not an end all and be all. 

    Firstly, I’d suggest some super important things, followed by some minor things.  #1 – Make sure you have enough food and water in the house for at least a week (remember that a lot of people now are doing without power for three weeks – better to overprepare than to be overly optimistic).  You don’t want to be one of those people braving their ways to the store after the storm hits, to find out (if you manage to get there safely and the store is actually open) that everything was cleaned out and the food you were counting on buying has been sold to people who didn’t wait as long as you.  This happens every single time there’s a big storm; it’s predictable and I don’t know why it comes as a suprise to anyone when it happens.  I don’t like going shopping at the last minute, but still, better to go shopping a short time before a storm than to wait until afterwards (of course, having a stocked pantry at all times makes this much less urgent).  Use your head – don’t buy lots of prepared frozen foods that you’d have no way to heat up or to keep frozen if you lost power (an advantage of losing power in the winter is you can pretty easily keep things cold outside).  Canned foods are especially useful (make sure you have a couple of manual can openers), bottled water and juice is good. 

    Fill up empty pots, pitchers, and any other available containers with water for cooking and drinking with, and put some large buckets filled with water in your bathtub – those are for washing with.  Why do you need to store water?  Do you know that most of us are dependent on electricity for our water?  Yep, it’s true; the power is necessary to pump the water out, for most private wells as well as for city water supplies.  You’re going to want to wash your hands, flush the toilets, etc. (Baby wipes come in handy in this situation for preserving your stored water supply – you can use them to keep your hands clean.)

    How will you heat up your food?  I have a gas stove, which is good since often the gas lines are still functional when the electricity goes down (this is why I wanted one).  There are lots of alternative heating sources; you’d need to look into them before you need them.  We have a small grill that we could use outside if necessary, but I wouldn’t really want to in freezing temperatures.  Our solar oven wouldn’t help much on cold and cloudy days, but could come in handy if the sun made an appearance. (This is where you’ll appreciate having food that doesn’t need much cooking, if any.)

    What about household heat?  Think how much fun being inside all day is without any heat in the coldest part of the winter.  Knowing how to dress for the cold makes a big difference in being able to stay warm even without much (any?) heat.  Since we keep our heat pretty low all the time, going without heat would be unpleasant but manageable for us.  We’d seriously layer up, and make sure everyone had several blankets on their beds, fill hot water bottles for each person, etc.  Alternative heat sources like wood stoves would be invaluable in staying warm (and can be cooked on, too). 

    Those are the biggies – water, food, and heat.  Now for some smaller things that would make life lots more comfortable.

    When you hear the news, do some house cleaning.  Wash and dry all the laundry – if you couldn’t do it for another week, you’d be a lot more comfortable having it done.  Do all the dishes.  Cleaning the house when you have no heat or lights isn’t fun.  Have all family members take showers.  Physically and emotionally you’ll feel a lot better if you’re clean and if you can’t take a shower for a few days, it won’t be so bad.  I don’t usually use disposable dishes, but this would be the time to use them – so buy some when you’re shopping for the storm.  Also diapers – you definitely don’t want to run out of diapers.  Even if you use cloth diapers, limited water and power would make washing them lots less convenient.  Make sure you have plenty of toilet paper – though you could use pages of a phone book in a pinch, it’s nice not to have to.  🙂

    Lighting – you don’t technically need lights when it gets dark, but it’s a lot more pleasant.  Get some flashlights and batteries, candles and candle holder, fuel lamps and wicks and fuel for them – any and all of these can keep the dark from becoming frightening for little ones, and help you accomplish what you’ll want to do.  Make sure you have games that don’t require electricity – I think of this as obvious, because all of our home entertainment falls into this category, but I realize that many people are dependent on computers to keep their kids occupied and they’d be up the creek without it.  Kids who are bored and have nothing to do are kids who will be very unpleasant to have home all day long.  Books are important, too.

    I’m not going to address more specific needs like showering and laundry because I’m just touching on what I consider the bare basics.  You can manage without these (might not be fun) and survive.  You can’t manage without water and food, though.  You might have noticed that I didn’t put a generator anywhere on my list, which is the first item on most people’s lists.  That’s because generators are a) hugely expensive to buy; b) dependent on gasoline; and c) hugely expensive to run.  What happens if you run out of gas and you can’t get to the gas station?  Or you get to the gas station and they’re either sold out or unable to access it because they also don’t have power (not uncommon in these kinds of situations)?  Plus, it’s one of the first things that thieves look to steal in emergency situations.  Too many people put all of their (preparation) eggs into one (generator) basket.  I think it’s better to find smaller ways to be prepared that don’t involve so much cash outlay, things that you can use even if the storm doesn’t hit you hard. 

    Anyone who’s ever been unprepared in a situation like this will tell you it’s not fun – not at all.  And anyone who’s been prepared in a situation like this will tell you how worthwhile it was to have been able to take care of their needs even when there was no outside help to be had.

    Avivah

  • Making time for yourself

    >>“If you’re home with your kids all day, every day, how do you have time for yourself?”<<

    First of all, I have to say that I truly enjoy spending time with my kids – they’re great company! Enjoying your kids is critical, but you need to learn how to carve out time for yourself and your needs, so that you don’t get burnt out. You must recognize your own needs as valid and find ways to meet them.

    Homeschooling doesn’t mean being on active duty all day long. There are lulls and quiet periods. There is early morning or later in the evening time, and if you have a husband who can make himself available, then he can be home while you get out.

    How you meet your needs depends on what you enjoy. I didn’t have money for a babysitter when my kids were all little, I didn’t have a husband who had a schedule that made it possible to watch the kids, I didn’t have any friends or family members who could give me a break, but I still found ways to have time for myself. It can be something as simple as some quiet time to read a book, take a relaxing bath, call a friend, or have a cup of tea. The key is to take the time and take it regularly.

    Here’s something I did when I had six kids ages 9 and under, and had all the limitations I just shared with you. I found that a short break in the middle of the day kept me going and I didn’t get worn down. I instituted a daily rest time for every child. I would put the infant and toddler in for a nap, then everyone else had to stay in their beds for an hour. They didn’t have to fall asleep, but they had to stay there quietly. They could read, quietly play a game or do a puzzle (they chose it before rest time), but there was no talking or getting out of bed allowed until rest time was over. This gave me regular daily time to know I would have for myself without having lots of little people around. I don’t remember how long I kept that up – but it was a huge help, and something I would do even now if I felt I needed it.

    Be very careful that you don’t end up using your free time to clean up. I do sometimes stay up in the evenings when the kids are asleep and do some straightening up, but not for long.  I would resent spending my precious quiet time cleaning up the messes of the day. No matter how much you love your kids and spending time with them, you need to have some space for yourself or you’ll end up claustophobic and wanting to put them in school so you get a break.

    Don’t give that quiet time up for something that can be done in the daytime when the kids are awake, with them. It’s that space that makes us able to give all day long, and enjoy it. Lose the space, and you lose the enjoyment.

    Avivah

  • Freezing hard cheese

    I recently mentioned that you can freeze hard cheese.  But there are a couple of things to be aware of.  Firstly, when hard cheese is frozen and then defrosted, the consistency will be different.  Specifically, it will be crumbly, which is good if you buy a block of cheese since it makes shredding it a breeze.  All you have to do is slice it thinly while still frozen and it will fall apart into crumbles. 

    But what if you don’t want to have shredded cheese?  Does that mean that freezing cheese won’t work for you?   No.  You just need to be aware of another bit of useful information, that I’m about to disclose to you. 🙂  If you leave the cheese on your counter, where it can get warm and almost melty, and then put it in the freezer, the consistency won’t be crumbly when defrosted.

    Gosh, I have no idea where I pick these things up.  But they come in handy sometimes!

    Avivah

  • Make a menu based on your pantry

    >>Do you plan your menus from the sale flyers in advance, or buy the sale items and then come up with a menu after?<<

    I’ve written about menu planning, and I’ve written about shopping to fill your pantry.  I do both.  But I suggest something else that I rarely see advocated, but is very advantageous to your food bill.

    Most people make their menu, and then plan their shopping list.  And that’s really good – it’s a huge step above what most people do, which is to not plan much at all.  But what I like to do is stock my fridge, freezer, and pantry first.  I buys lots of whatever is a good price, buy a variety of fruits and vegetables (no pricey non seasonal veggies), and whatever else rounds out my basic pantry list for the month.  (I’ll try to share a list of what I try to stock my pantry with another time.)  Then, and only then, I make my menu, by looking at whatever I already have in the house.

    How does this help?  Firstly, you’ll always have the ingredients you need on hand – you know you have them, and that’s why you planned each particular meal!  Secondly, and more importantly, is that you are always eating sale priced items.  Let’s say that thanks to buying only sale items, your monthly discounts on groceries average out to 30% less than what you would have paid at full price.  That means that you are either a) saving 30% of what you would have otherwise spent, or that b) you’re spending the same monthly total on food, but getting 30% food more than you could have otherwise, which can last you 5.5 weeks instead of 4.  That adds up to a big difference, don’t you think?

    Some of you may object, saying that you can’t buy a lot of what you need ahead of time.  But I think running out daily for milk and bread is a habit more than anything.  And then people get used to it and can’t imagine shopping differently.  But even items like bread and milk can be purchased in advance.  Bread can easily be frozen and then defrosted before needed, or toasted if you prefer.  Milk can also be frozen, and if you’re not buying raw milk, then the consistency when you defrost it will be the same as before it was frozen.  Raw milk is fine to freeze, too, but the consistency changes – the cream will be in tiny chunks.  Meat and chicken can stay good in the fridge for several days, in the freezer for a lot longer.  Fish is kept the same as the chicken or meat.  Cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, butter, yogurt, and hard cheese can be frozen (I’ll do a separate post soon on some specific suggestions for freezing hard cheeses), and all of them easily stay good in the fridge for at least a week.  Don’t freeze sour cream, though – I tried this recently and when it defrosted, it was liquid.  So I used it for cream style grits for breakfast. 🙂

    Root vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas) can all be easily stored in the winter without refrigeration.  Fresh vegetables that are more perishable don’t need to be purchased more than once a week. And of course, frozen vegetables are nutritionally pretty good and can be bought much more than a week ahead.  Winter fruits store well in cold weather, too, like apples, pear, and citrus.  If you like to buy fruits out of season, then just refrigerate them.

    So buying food ahead shouldn’t be too hard – just shop the sales, and stock up.  It’s a different way of thinking about shopping, and will take some time to get a full variety of pantry items stocked, but not nearly as long as you think.

    Avivah

  • Defining frugality

    As a sign of the times, a local magazine just came out with an article about how to save money.  And it was interesting to note two things: a) most of the suggestions were nice but weren’t going to radically change anyone’s financial situation (eg – occasionally don’t have your cleaning help come in and do the cleaning yourself); and b) no one interviewed for their tips wanted to use their name, other than the shopping maven who buys designer suits for $400 instead of $1200.  This got me thinking about why people are embarrassed to identify themselves publicly as practicing frugality, and how differently I view frugality.

    I think a lot of people equate saving money and frugality with doing without, being low class and needy, and being cheap or a skinflint.  Who wants to proudly call themselves cheap, when it carries such a strongly negative connotation?  Not me, and obviously everyone interviewed who wouldn’t share their name must have somehow shared this association with saving money.  

    However, I love having a frugal lifestyle and am very comfortable talking about it, because to me, frugality is not about being cheap at all.  Being frugal means being able to create a lifestyle where you can have all that is important to you, without compromising other things that are important to you.  People many years ago had a lot less materially than we do today, and do you think that we’re a significantly happier generation than all of those past were?  Statistics actually show the opposite, but the point is that having more stuff doesn’t equate well with being happy, even though those who make their living in marketing would like us to think so!

    It can be a challenge, living well within your means and not feeling deprived, but the challenge is mental more than anything.  Living within your means is not about deprivation and doing without.  Living frugally is about clarifying what really matters to you, assessing what gives you joy, and then making choices every day that support that.  It’s about attitude – do you feel sorry for yourself that you don’t have what it seems everyone around you has, or do you feel good to have a clear vision of what you feel is most important, and honor that every time you spend money?   

    For example, it’s a huge value for my husband and I that our children are raised by us, and that they have a full time stay home parent.  So we gladly forgo the supposed benefits of having two incomes (very overrated and a myth that could stand to be debunked) because we have so much more pleasure from raising our family than having a few dollars more each month.  It’s a value for us to have the money to buy what we want, so I don’t mind sometimes waiting a month or more for larger purchases if that’s when the cash will be available.  Basically, we spend our money in a way that supports our values, and that’s a good feeling.

    When you can find fun wherever you are, and enjoy all that you have to the fullest, that’s being frugal.  It’s not about doing without – it’s about identifying what really matters to you and finding ways to achieve that, while staying in your budget.  It’s exciting and fun to live within your means, and to live well!  Our family can squeeze enjoyment about of a small trip or activity, a special food or – well, anything, really!

    So much of living outside of our means is about trying to impress others, and just as often, trying to impress ourselves.  When we define ourselves by what we have instead of who we are, there’s a feeling of inadequacy.  We can never have enough, because no matter what we have, it doesn’t give us value.  So people keep spending, trying to push away that feeling of inadequacy.  We’ve become a society of people focused on how we look, rather than our character.

    There’s so much joy in living without the burden of debt, of not having to keep up appearances to impress others (with the internal knowledge that the lifestyle we present to the world is a house of cards), that I wince to hear those in debt say that they’d hate to have to count every penny, to budget – because it’s clear they haven’t made the connection between the emotional and financial stress they regularly feel and the way they spend money. 

    Avivah

  • Trusting good to come your way

    I’ve been getting a huge amount of spam from one particular post I wrote in the summer, and I finally decided to delete it since I don’t see how to avoid the 20 – 100 spam responses I get daily in response to this post only.  But since in that post I shared what is an integral part of my attitude towards life, I’m reposting it here, under a different title.  I can’t figure out what about this post triggered so much spam, but the companies I was spammed by all begin with the same letter that one of the title words start with – I know, that sounds like an unlikely connection, but it’s worth a try!  And if the spam continues, I’ll have to decide if I’ll delete it permanently or if it’s worth it to deal with the spam. 

    I wrote this response the day after a very productive food shopping trip for the month, and have edited out the beginning of that post. 

    ***

    I believe that when you trust that good things will happen to you, good things flow into your life.  I have so much joy when I go shopping for food and find so many wonderful things for my family while staying within my financial constraints.  Before I shop, I ask G-d to help me find what I need, and He always does!  Every month, I used to feel very grateful, while simultaneously wondering how I was going to ‘pull the rabbit out of the hat’ this month, since it seemed so unlikely that I could be able to again find what I needed at the prices I needed.  But one day, I realized that it’s not me finding the deals, it’s G-d sending them to me.  I have to do my part and do the looking, but if I see the deals or not isn’t in my hands.  The rest is up to Him. 

    Often people will speak as though it’s impossible to manage with rising food costs, that there’s no choice but to tighten your belt and suffer.  How it’s impossible to have quanity, quality, and stay within a budget.  How I’m just lucky because I live in an area with cheap food prices (false assumption since I’m actually on the expensive eastern corridor).  All focused on the negative, on the lack, on their certainty that there’s no way things could be better.  So I rarely share anymore how we manage to shop for a family of 10 and spend $600 on food monthly, eat only healthy foods, buy very large amounts of food (including fruits and vegetables), have teenagers and guests, while being limited by kosher restrictions – except here.  That’s because I’ve seen most people would rather have someone commiserate with them than change the way they look at things, or believe that more is possible than what they see in front of them. 

    When I sometimes share my good deals that I find with you, it’s not only because of the fun of getting something for much less than most people think possible.  It’s also so that you can see what is possible – once you know something is possible, then you’ll have your eyes open to things you might not have noticed before, and it’s much more likely you’ll be amazing yourself with your special finds!

    Try it – try focusing on all that is good in your life.  (I shared with you about the area of my food budget, but I think it’s a principle that applies in all areas.)  Believe that more good things are on their way to you.  And see what happens. 🙂

    Avivah

  • The first night of Chanukah and my present 🙂

    Last night was the first night of Chanuka, and sooo nice!  We had eight different menorahs being lit, and gave our six year old his gift – the new menorah – before lighting so he could use it.  He was so excited – it was very sweet to watch him; he kept going back to it after he lit and stroking and touching it.  After we light the menorahs, we sing, and then my husband dances together with all of the kids; it’s been our ritual for many years, at least since my oldest was three.  Then we give presents, if there are any to give that night.

    The kids and my husband all liked the taffeta gift bags that I made to put the gifts in – most of them hadn’t seen them yet.  We try to organize things so that on each night, each person doesn’t get more than one gift, everyone gets one, and everyone gets to give one.  That’s a lot more complicated than it sounds because of the number of people involved – last year I remember thinking seriously about making a chart to keep track of who was doing what, each night!

    But this year because we’re simplifying even more than usual, the kids haven’t gotten each other too much, which is good.  My oldest son, 15, gave me my Chanuka present from him last night – a beautiful solar oven!  He’s spent 20 – 30 hours building it – I knew he was building it, but I had no idea how nice it would be.  When he initially asked if there was a link of what I wanted that he could look at, I gave him a site to check out (http://www.cookwiththesun.com/solar.htm – the oven at the top of the page).  But he made some improvements that really added to the look of it, like making an adjustable prop for the lid, painting the outside black, and building a bumper so if the lid slammed, the mirror wouldn’t break (important keeping in mind how things go around here :)).

    When we redid our kitchen last year, we replaced our regular oven with a double oven, each of which is much smaller than a standard oven, and my turkey roaster no longer fit.  I didn’t give it away, though, because in the back of my mind I thought it would be the perfect pan for a solar oven since it’s black (the recommended pot color for solar cooking because it absorbs heat).   That was the pan he based the size of the oven on – most solar ovens are too small for our needs.

    He recycled as many materials as possible – the plywood came from the neighbors who remodelled their basement three months ago, the plexiglass for the lid from my inlaws (it wasn’t quite the right size, so he built a frame for it so it would fit), the mirror was one we had in the house that we weren’t using, and the insulation was newspaper and cardboard.  He used some leftover black foam pipe insulation to frame the top lid. The main costs were: black bbq paint – $8, aluminum flashing for the interior – $8, aluminum tape – $3.50, hinges – $3, and having the mirror cut down to the size we needed – $10.  He’s planning to put wheels on the bottom, since it’s pretty heavy, due to the weight of the wood, glass, and mirror.  So whatever that costs will get added to the total, but in any case, it’s a bargain!   (If you’ve ever priced solar ovens, you’ll understand how pricey they can be.)

    Today was freezing – the wind chill factor brought it down to below zero early this morning when the boys walked to shul (synagogue), and though it warmed up slightly, it wasn’t exactly a toasty day.  Since there was sunlight, the kids wanted to try out the solar oven, despite the low temps. I don’t know why they decided to fry an egg, but it wasn’t the best choice – slow cooking is the watchword for solar cooking, and frying eggs is a quickie dish.  The cooker steamed up and the edges of the egg cooked, but it was so cold that the kids quickly lost the desire to go outside and readjust the mirror so it was angled toward the sun (since obviously the sun is always moving), so the egg didn’t end up fully cooked.  Like I said, it wasn’t the best day or best food to try to cook, but we’ll try again when it’s a little warmer.  For the sake of the people involved, not the cooker – apparently what matters is that the sun is out, not the temperature of the air.

    I wanted a solar cooker for when the weather is hot, because it seems like a shame to have all that natural energy of the sun wasted, and have the house heated up when extra heat is the last thing you want (unlike today, when we wouldn’t have minded extra heat!)  I also like the idea of having a back up cooking source that isn’t dependent on store bought fuel.  When it gets warmer, we’ll get busy experimenting!

    And as nice a present as it was (and it really is nice!), what touched me most was the love and thought my son put into it, to make something I would enjoy and appreciate.

    Avivah

  • Alternatives to sugar

    I’ve mentioned before that I don’t use any sweeteners of any kind for myself, and for my family I absolutely avoid white sugar.  So I’ve been asked a number of times, what sweeteners do I use, and why?

     I try not to use many sweeteners, even those that are healthier and have nutritional value, because I think that sweeteners are meant to be used in small amounts.  What I use the most of is sucanat – this is dehydrated cane sugar juice.  It is rich in minerals, and is very easy to use as a substitute for sugar in baking.  It’s granular and can be used in equal amounts and in the same way.  This is pricier than white sugar (I pay over $1.50 a pound, but that’s because I buy in bulk – usually it would be more), but it’s still the least expensive of the alternatives.

    The next thing I buy is honey.  Raw honey is best, and I’m sometimes in an area where I can buy this at a price that is similar to regular honey, so that’s what I get then.  But generally I buy a large container of regular honey – 12 pounds for a little over $30.  I use this mostly for sweetener for teas (right now I’m using it a lot of homemade cough syrup to alleviate a cough that my littlest ones picked up – a couple of cloves of garlic, sliced into a container with equal amounts of raw apple cider vinegar and honey, the garlic flavor steeps into the mixture, they don’t eat the pieces – I give a spoonful every couple of hours). 

    I also use agave nectar. I don’t use a bunch of this, but my kids can put it on pancakes, in plain yogurt for breakfast,  etc.  I bought a couple of kinds of molasses, blackstrap and regular, thinking they would be good to use for baking, but this wasn’t a hit in our family.  Consequently, they don’t get used often unless a recipe specifically calls for it.  Stevia is helpful to add sweetness to something, but is used in very tiny amounts.  I bought a small container of this a year ago and have hardly used it so far, so this is something I have around but can’t give many useful suggestions for what to do with it. 

    I don’t use maple syrup, only because of the expense.  I have date syrup that someone in Israel brought, but have used it sparingly – probably because I know we can’t get it, so I never want to use it!  But nutritionally, they are both excellent.

    There are those who will say that using alternative sweeteners are too expensive, but we’re able to include these regularly instead of turning to cheap and unhealthy white sugar because I’m frugal in other areas of my budget.  This is an area of frugality that is often overlooked – frugality isn’t about doing without, but allotting your resources in a way that is meaningful for you, and creating ‘space’ financially to do what is most important for you.

    Avivah  

  • Happy Thanksgiving!

    I hope everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving so far!  We don’t usually make a Thanksgiving dinner – I grew up with my mom making Thanksgiving type foods for the Shabbos immediately after Thanksgiving, and that’s what I’ve tended towards.  But my inlaws do make Thanksgiving dinner, so for the last three years that they’ve lived here, we’ve had the meal with them at their home.

    This year my mother in law unfortunately wasn’t feeling up to it, and asked us if we’d make everything if she’d bring the turkey.  I had such a very, very full week and I felt putting all of this into my plans would really push me more than I wanted to be pushed.  But this is a big deal for them, and as much as I really didn’t want the burden of taking on something that isn’t a priority for me in any way, I felt it was the right thing to do. (Note – I’m hesitant to write this because I feel very strongly that women need to learn to recognize their limitations and learn to say ‘no’, stop worrying what everyone else will think and do what is right for them.  I overrode myself in this case for the sake of family peace – it would have been a big withdrawal from the relationship if I had said I couldn’t do it.)

    All of the kids got involved in preparing today – the house needed a lot of organizing because of my full day shopping trip on Tuesday (all that food to organize and find space for!).  We got home in the evening, and were out all yesterday afternoon (my older girls led a cheesemaking workshop for our homeschool group), so it couldn’t be done sooner.  So add up house that is a disaster and lots of cooking.  And I didn’t mention that we’re having a family of ten for Shabbos lunch, did I?  🙂

    But because of how we split everything up, none of us felt pressured, and we ended up having a nice day getting ready together.  It was a very busy day, but it was manageable.  Early in the day, I made it clear to my kids that my priority was a calm and pleasant home environment, and that making a nice dishes wasn’t worth it to me if it meant anyone would get tense about it.  Here’s the menu we ended up with:

    • clover leaf dinner rolls (dd14 made a double challah recipe and used half of it for this)
    • turkey and gravy – courtesy of my mil
    • green salad (lettuce, tomatoes, cukes, lemon) – dd14
    • carrot salad (shredded carrots and pineapple) – carrots peeled by dd8 and I think ds9, shredded and put together by dd12
    • sweet potato pie – made by my mom
    • sweet potato casserole – made by my mom for those in our home who don’t eat sugar or wheat
    • mashed potatoes – made by my 9.5 year old son
    • white asparagus with mushrooms – dd12
    • cornbread stuffing – made by my mom
    • fresh cranberry-orange relish – dd14
    • baked yams – made by my 6 year old
    • gingerbread cookies, a pan full plus a bunch shaped like gingerbread men – dough made by dd14, rolled and cut into shapes by ds6, dd8, ds9
    • pumpkin pie – made by dd12
    • and a bowl full of clementines accompanied dessert

    As I wrote that all out, I realized that my oldest son was nowhere in the picture, and he in fact was doing work for me all day, but it was outside of the kitchen realm!  All of the kids were doing cleaning and organizing throughout the day, but I don’t want it to seem that my big hulking son was nowhere around.  My husband was working and got home at 5 pm, and I was overseeing and coordinating everyone (oh, and canning butter – I needed room in the freezer to put the frozen vegetables I bought :)).

     When I told my husband I would agree to host the meal, I told him that I felt it is important to have a meal that focuses on gratitude, especially on Thanksgiving, not just to sit around together and have nothing but the quality or quantity of the food to talk about.  Gratitude is something we really try to integrate into our way of looking at the world, and I think that gratitude for the many blessings in our lives is the real message of Thanksgiving.  So to have the meal and not talk at all about all the gifts we’ve been granted, particularly as citizens of the US, is missing the point.

    After my husband talked a little about the significance of Thanksgiving, and the Jewish concept of gratitude, we throughout the meal went from one person to another to give everyone a chance to share things they were grateful for.  (Our guests were my inlaws, mother, and friend of my mother.)   I feel so grateful to live in a country where we have religious freedom, tremendous abundance (even for those of us on the super frugal scale, we have so much more than those in other countries), and for my wonderful family. 

    I grew up not seeing my grandparents often, and it’s a source of great joy to me that my children have the opportunity to know and spend time with our parents, who have all moved here in the last few years.  Yes, sometimes there are challenges in getting along with everyone, but there’s something so special about it that I feel it’s worth all of the challenges.

    I hope all of you celebrating had a meaningful and enjoyable Thanksgiving!

    Avivah

  • Camping lantern, flashlight, and radio

    A couple of months ago I realized that I didn’t have a reliable, non-battery powered source of light or news, in case of emergency.  Because we go camping every year, I knew that whatever we got would be useful for then, so I set out to research different products that could be hand cranked for power.  I’ve bought a number of flashlights and batteries over the years – and if I can find one when I want it, the batteries are usually not working anymore! 

    I finally made my order, only to be told that it would be several weeks before the lantern I wanted was in.  I waited for three weeks and finally decided to cancel my order and get something else (a good thing, since last week I got another email telling me it would be another couple of months until it was restocked).  What I ended up ordering was the set sold by C Crane Co. (ccrane.com) – it included a lantern, flashlight, and radio, because it was recommended by someone whose opinion I value regarding emergency supplies.  All are good quality and reasonably priced, particularly when purchased as a set (there was a discount for that), and have LED lighting as well as hand crank capacity.

    Since this is something that’s been niggling around in my brain for awhile, waiting to be taken care of, I’m glad to have it done.  I also bought a couple of 12 oz Halloween candles for 50 cents each, to eventually use to make fire starters, but that’s a project that’s not at the top of my list by any means! 🙂

    Avivah