Get Mommed

The pre "Pre Teen" years

2010-04-09T01:03:10Z

Lately I’ve noticed “changes” in my daughter both physically and emotionally. Needless to say, she’s physically growing at a rate that I have learned to accept but don’t like! Emotionally I figure she’s discovering herself but I thought it would be sort of a quick all-in-one transition. I honestly don’t remember going through this bit-by-bit transition myself.

Recently she’s been paying attention to her appearance so recently I kindly reminded her to brush all the way through her hair, even the back and to make sure to get the knots out. She’s never really been interested in doing her own hair but would often come to me, brush on hand, and ask for help with the back. Lately this hasn’t been the case. As I was reminding her to properly brush her hair she came out of the bathroom and gave me “that” look. You know the one with the attitude, the one where the invisible bubble forms above her head like in comics, which in my case read “Whatever Mom”. When she finished pretending to properly brush her hair she stormed out of the bathroom down the hall towards her bedroom saying “I’ll tuck myself in tonight” and closed her door. I gave her, and myself, a few minutes before getting up to go and check on her. When I opened her door she hid her face in the pillow and wouldn’t look at me. I calmly said goodnight to her and closed her door. About 10 minutes later I could her her whimpering from her bedroom. Again I got up and walked into her room and when I opened her door she was crying. I walked over to her and wrapped my arms tightly around her and simply said “Don’t cry my love, tell me what’s wrong” She looked at me with those big beautiful eyes and said “I’m sorry mama that I was rude to you” I hugged her even tighter thinking here’s my daughter, one minute this independent pre “Pre Teen” and the next still very much my baby. Nobody ever told me about these pre “Pre Teen” years and sometimes I find them tough. The attitude develops, the physical changes occur, and the ever increasing independence continues. I think the hardest part has been letting go of my baby. Don’t get me wrong I love watching her grow as a person but sometimes I wish she would stay young forever.

The Passover Feast

2010-04-03T02:38:17Z

Boy, am I exhausted! I've been cooking and cleaning for days to prepare for a very special celebration. Monday night marked the first night of Passover. As everyone is gearing up for the Easter long weekend, I thought it would be great to share the celebration of Passover.

What exactly is Passover, you may be wondering. Passover is a time to reflect on the past, and of course, to EAT! A Jewish holiday is never complete without enjoying delicious food. A friend of mine explained that there are 3 different kinds of Jews:

1) Geriatric Jews - Jewish to honour their grandparents
2) Pediatric Jews - Jewish to instill tradition in their children
3) Gastronomic Jews - Jewish for the love of the food

During the first two nights of Passover families get together to retell the story of the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt after being enslaved for over 400 years, we read from a special book (Haggadah) and eat many symbolic foods.

One of these foods being matzah. If you haven't had the privilege of eating matzah, let me just say, that many compare its taste to the box it comes in. We eat Mazah to remember the haste of the departure of the Hebrews as they left Egypt. They did not have time to let their bread rise, so we today eat only unleavened bread, matzah, during passover. We also refrain from eating anything made with wheat, rye, barley (yes, that means beer) oats, spelt, rice, corn or peanuts. You can imagine how well this goes over with kids. My daughter pretty much lives on bread and pasta. But for 8 days she follows these restrictions (much to her chagrin). Happy times for the head chef in the family, me!!

You may be surprised to learn why this holiday is called Passover. The story goes like this: the Egyptian Pharaoh would not release the Hebrews from slavery so God inflicted 10 plagues on them. The first nine did not sway the Pharaoh, but the 10th and final plague did - the slaying of the first-born male. The Hebrews marked the doors of their homes with the blood of a spring lamb; God then "passed over" these homes and only killed the Egyptian males (hence the term Passover). This culminated in the release of the Hebrews.

If you are wondering whether I believe this story, I have to admit that I'm some what skeptical. However, I do believe in the importance of retelling the story. I have many privileges today because of the sacrifices of those make before me. I am reminded of the suffering of the Jewish people during the Holocaust as I dip my vegetable in to the salt water at the Passover seder - the salt water symbolises the sad tears of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. I observe the dietary restrictions to honour those who came before me.

On the plate photographed in the image below you will find foods of significance that tie us to our past. We recall the bitterness experienced by the Hebrew slaves by eating raw grated horseradish. I'm not sure if you have ever tried raw horseradish before, but you really shouldn't! The shooting pain that you experience that flares through your nostrils as you consume this extremely bitter root can be torturous. Exhibit A - a photo of my poor brother as he bites into the horseradish (eaten between two pieces of matzah). In the next photo you will find haroset (a mixture of apple, walnut and wine, delicious!). We eat this to remind us of the mortar that the slaves used to build the cities of Pharaoh.

No sedar is complete without the youngest child asking these questions. These questions encourage the family to discuss the significance of the symbols in the meal. the questions are

as follows:

Why is this night different from all other nights?
On all other nights, we eat either unleavened or leavened bread, but tonight we eat only unleavened bread?
On all other nights, we eat all kinds of vegetable, but tonight, we eat only bitter herbs?
On all other nights we do not dip [our food] even once but tonight we dip twice?
On all other nights we eat either sitting or reclining, but tonight we only recline?

The adults take turns answering the questions. Click here if you would like to read some of the answers.

After the reading is complete we dig into a magnificent feast, filled with many traditional Jewish foods including; gefilte fish, chopped live, matzah ball soup (served with egg noodles -pasta noodles are not permitted), brisket, kugels (potato and vegetable) and turkey. My father comes from Morocco so we also include many delicious salads.

Last but not least is dessert. Now you may wonder how we are able to prepare dessert without using flour. Matzah, which is made from flour and water and is permitted on Passover, is ground down into two textures, course (matza meal) and fine (cake meal). We use cake meal to make many great desserts. Of course we cannot use baking powder or soda, so we use many eggs to keep our cakes light and fluffy. How many eggs do you think these cakes need? The answer is LOTS and LOTS; my sponge cake recipe takes 9 eggs. You can only imagine the looks that I get at the grocery store as I place 10 dozen eggs into by grocery cart.

Passover is a time that I both love and dread.
Dread: Clearing my house from top to bottom to get rid of any traces of banned food items. I also really miss eating bread, cereal and pasta
Love: Having a clean house. I'm sure that the origins of spring-cleaning can be traced back to Jewish people cleaning their homes in preparation for Passover. I also love passing on traditions and customs to my children. I feel so lucky and proud to be able to finally host my very own seder after years of attending those made by my grandmother and parents. It gives me so much pleasure to see my parents enjoy the seder that I have prepared, it makes all the hard work, worth the effort!

Chag Sameach to all those who celebrate Passover. To my friends and family who celebrate Easter may you have a wonderful weekend filled with love and joy!

We Have a Donnie. And a Tink.

2010-04-02T17:33:44Z

Thank you for all the comments and emails and advice re: getting a family pet.

We did a lot of discussing, a lot of considering, and a lot of arguing.

Please say hello to Donatello and Tinkerbelle. Our new turtles.

When life gives you lemon (crumbles)...

2010-04-02T17:17:35Z

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I am excellent cook. Everyone has A THING, and my thing is cooking. When it comes to baking, however, it's much less my thing. Usually I just end up buying a cake or a pie because I spend so much time in the kitchen working on my meal that I just completely forget about the dessert portion of the meal. Or maybe it's because I just don't have that much of a sweet tooth. Maybe.

Occasionally, however, I become ambitious and do silly things like offer to make a cake for a potluck dinner with friends. And then I find a lovely lemon cake recipe and I am all prepared to WOW my friends. The batter is perfect, the pan is one of those fancy ones that looks like a castle, and I have high hopes for this beauty.

And then it comes out of the oven. AND STICKS TO THE PAN.

Oh. No.

But then I remembered a gift I once received and never used.

And then suddenly, or in about 15 minutes - depending on who is counting - my disaster becomes a masterpiece!!

It's so simple, I don't know why I had never thought of it before.

I scooped some large crumbled pieces of cake out of the castle pan and tossed them into the trifle bowl. I covered the cakes with some whipped cream and layered the pan with some more cake and some more cream.

VOILA! A presentable dessert made from something I thought I was going to have to throw away.

From Horror to Romance

2010-04-01T02:12:19Z

I was never a fan of reading when I was younger (I’m making myself sound old now !) but over the last couple of years I have found joy in reading and now look forward to quiet time with a good book.

Now I have to admit that I’ve always had a thing for Horror stories. I’ve read my fair share of these types of books and have enjoyed them. I guess I’ve always found it interesting how twisted a persons mind can be but on my most recent visit to my local book store I found myself opening up to other possibilities. I decided to take a walk through the once forbidden romance section. On my visit prior to this one, I had walked through the romance section and one book in particular caught my eye. Maybe it was because I had heard the movie was great or maybe because of the reviews about the author but this time I decided I would purchase “The Notebook” by Nicholas Sparks. Now I know some of you are thinking I’m way behind the times here but be patient with me, I’m new to this romance thing!

So off I went with my new book, hot water and lemon tea in hand, and sat down to read. Now I have to say I found the beginning of the book a bit of a struggle since the first couple of chapters are so long and well I have this “thing” about having to finish the chapter before I stop reading. Regardless I pushed through and I’m so glad I did. This is a great story about love in it’s purest form and I cried. I’m not sure if it’s because of how much Noah truly loves Allie or because of how he always manages to find beauty in her but I cried. Just thought I would share that with you in case you’re in need of a good love story and a good cry.

Maybe these romance are not so bad after all!

Wednesday Affirmation

2010-03-30T15:55:55Z

it's a bit earlier than usual this year, but those warmer temperatures are here and most everyone across Canada has had a chance to get out and bask in the warmth and sunshine.

There's nothing more inspiring to me than springtime, so this week's Wednesday Affirmation celebrates that season:

Spring is when life's alive in everything. --Christina Rossetti

Egg-tastic!

2010-03-30T15:09:51Z

You guys all know that I love to get creative around the holidays, and Spring holidays are the perfect time for decorating...eggs, that is!

Now I'm very familiar with the Christian tradition of decorating Easter Eggs, but when I was doing some research on the origins of this tradition, I discovered that the gift of decorated eggs at springtime has been around for millennia.

The ancient Persians gave decorated eggs as gifts for the festival or Nowruz (celebrated on the spring equinox). To this day, decorated eggs are still part of the Haft Sin table (haft sin stands for 'seven S's - a table containing seven items beginning with the word S) during Zoroastrian Nowruz celebrations.

Eggs are also a traditional part of the Jewish Passover Seder. One of the six items on the seder plate is Beitzah: A roasted egg, symbolizing the korban chagigah (festival sacrifice) that was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem and was then eaten as part of the meal on Seder night.

And it's also said that the Saxons in England celebrated the festival of Eostre on the vernal equinox with gifts of eggs. Eostre is also said to be identified with the hare, so perhaps this is the origin of the Easter bunny (and his proclivity for eggs).

In Slavic countries, they've taken the art of egg decorating to incredible artistic lengths, most recognizably with the famous Ukranian pysanky:

In many Northern European countries, eggs are dyed using natural products, as in this image where they are dyed by boiling in water while wrapped in onion skins, creating a beautiful marbled effect:

But the way I always dyed eggs as a kid was the traditional food-colouring bath. It's so much more economical than the kits available at craft stores and supermarkets, and yields beautiful, pastel-coloured eggs:

Food coloring
Hot water
White vinegar

For each colour measure 1/4 tsp. food coloring in small bowl. Add 3/4 cup hot water and 1 tbsp. white vinegar to each color (vinegar is what sets the dye). Add eggs and allow to sit until they are the desired color. Remove with slotted spoon. If you wish, you can polish dry eggs with a small amount of cooking oil to give them a slight shine.

What Would You Be Doing?

2010-03-22T17:37:22Z

Do you ever wonder what you might be doing if you were not doing exactly what it is you are doing right now?

Chew on that for a minute.

I wonder what I would choose if I could pick any job....create my own dream job, if you will.

Can't you just see it now...I could be:

A foreign correspondent, on a tropical island!

An ice cream taste-tester!

A multispecies baby tickler!

A luxury bed tester!

A greeting card writer!

A waterslide tester!

A bike rider/photographer for Google Maps!

These are REAL jobs, I swear! You can actually have a job where you are FORCED to sit around tickling babies and chimps and gorillas to see if the laughter in these animals and in humans mean the same thing.

Help Us Pick A Family Pet!

2010-03-22T17:04:49Z

Wanna talk about pets and children for a second? I know that I'm all about giving advice...well, you know me, lots of opinions! But, occasionally, I need to turn to you - - - other moms - - - for some advice.

We want to get a pet. Well, MY DAUGHTER wants to get a pet. And well, we have agreed to THINK ABOUT IT. But we have now been thinking about it for many, many months and we still haven't been able to come up with a pet that we think would be best. Dog? Cat? Rabbit? Fish? Frog? Turtle? Bird? Hamster? Gerbil?

We thought dog, originally, because we both grew up with dogs...and it just seemed the obvious choice. But is it? Dogs are lots of work, and our children are still pretty small. So, probably, if we went with a dog, it would have to be a small breed, one that doesn't require lots of walking. And our black furniture would definitely prefer a non-shedder.

Then we thought cat, because they are much less work. But then I start to worry about allergies and inviting other people into our home. And the litter box? Is that a lot of work? And do cats give you the same kind of love as dogs?

And then we thought the small, caged, rodenty animal. They seem inexpensive and fun for kids. But, does the novelty wear off quickly? Also, they have a certain smell sometimes, don't they?

Fish are easy enough, aren't they? You know, once you pay for ALL THE ENDLESS supplies and you can't really cuddle a fish, can you? Also, they seem to die the quickest, right? I am not all that interested in having the dreaded fish funeral any time soon.

Birds are so beautiful and are relatively easy, and they do tend to live a long time, right? But, they are sooo noisy!

So, please, I want to hear from you!!!! I want to hear you good pet experiences AND your bad ones!

What pet should we get?

What defines a true friend?

2010-03-19T01:26:40Z

Do you follow a budget?

2010-03-13T21:19:23Z

I recently decided to put effort into following a budget. It’s not that I had that shocked expression that you sometimes see when people check their account balance and it’s not because I’m in huge debt. I simply wanted to see where my money was going and how much of it I was spending on food in particular. I decided to give myself 5 categories - Food, Clothing, Gas/transportation, Entertainment and Other. Surprisingly enough since I started my little budget book I have written down what I spend and each week I’ve managed to come in under budget.

So my question is, do you budget? If so do you have any struggles with your system? Tricks of the trade? How detailed is your budget?

Any input is appreciated.

Wednesday Affirmation

2010-03-09T17:04:32Z

Change, Change, Change...

You've heard all the clichés, right? The only constant is change; the more things change, the more they stay the same; the times they are a-changin'.

But in the end it's true. We all know that things are ALWAYS changing, moving inexorably towards the future. You can't make things stay the same any more than you can freeze a moment in time. Despite all our amazing technological advances, we still can't stop change. It's a fundamental law of the universe: in fact, the Second Law of Thermodynamics is essentially an expression of this irreversibility of nature.

In keeping with this scientific train of thought, I'm bringing you a quote from one of the people in history I admire most: Charles Darwin. February 12 2009 was the bicentennial of his birth, and there were lots of great commemorative activities - I hope you had the chance to catch a book, movie or exhibit about this great thinker.

Darwin, of course, had a specific perspective on change, but you can apply this thought to your life in a lot of ways that have nothing to do with evolution. I'll leave it to you to interpret in the most fitting way for you:

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. -- Charles Darwin

DIVORCE?

2010-03-09T02:13:43Z

Is it better for a young child to have his parents together irrespective of how unhappy they are? Or, is it in the child’s better interest if his parents split (of course, Both stay involved in the child’s life). Some marriages have been miserable for so long and couples stay together for the sake of the child. Any personal stories to share please?

Green Spring Cleaning

2010-03-08T18:35:36Z

'Round my parts, yesterday was the first real spring-like day so far. Seems like everyone crawled out of their hibernating holes and got outside to enjoy some sunshine and warm temperatures. I took a nice stroll around my neighbourhood and noticed that every park, every café, every patio was crowded with people out taking the air. The sidewalks were packed with folks and everyone had a little spring in their step. The air was steeped with optimism and smiles shone on everyone's face. Yup, I love spring.

I love the sense of renewal and that refreshing zing of energy. I love to shake off the dust of winter and start my spring cleaning. And because I also love the green grass and tender green crocus and narcissus shoots, I take care to use green ingredients when I get outside and wash up.

Yesterday I took down my kitchen blinds and washed off a season's worth of dust, and I also cleaned the kitchen windows, inside and out. I wanted to have a fresh, clear and sparkling view of the morning sun for my coffee today, so I mixed up some of my favourite earth-friendly cleaning solution and you KNOW it involves vinegar, don't you?

Here's my recipe for streak-proof window cleaning (it works well on any surface, but it's especially great on windows). And although I love me some vinegar, it's often not enough to get off the waxy residue from environmental pollutants (or years of non-bio-friendly cleaners), so add a touch of dish soap to the mix.

Lisa's Fool-Proof, Streak-Proof Window Cleaning Solution:

1/2 cup vinegar

1 teaspoon liquid dish soap

4 cups of water

You can put it in a bucket or spray bottle(s). Shake/stir gently to blend (but don't foam it up too much). Apply to windows with a cloth or sponge. I get the best results by using a squeegee to remove it, but if you don't have one you could use old newspapers to do the job.

Make Your Own Challah!!

2010-02-23T01:07:04Z

There's nothing I enjoy more in the winter than some freshly baked bread. And I love to make it myself....it tastes great, it's inexpensive, and it makes the house smell so wonderful. I have tried many, many recipes, but there's one I just love so much. It's a little bit (read: a lot) sweet, but it's so delicious. And the entire family LOVES it. It's slightly time-consuming and you need to NOT be afraid of yeast (many of my friend are!) but, I assure you, if you try it, you will love it enough to make the effort to make it!

Makes 2 loaves:

3 eggs
1 pkg. yeast
4 cups flour
3/4 stick margarine
3/4 cup sugar + 1 tsp.
1 cup warm water
1 tsp. salt

In a large stainless steel bowl, dissolve yeast into warm water and and add 1 tsp sugar until it bubbles
add eggs, margarine and sugar and salt.

add flour, 1/2 a cup at a time. Dough should be sticky.

cover with damp towel and refrigerate overnight.

Remove from fridge. divide into 2 pieces. divide each piece into three pieces.
braid. cover with damp towel.
let rise 1.5-2 hours until doubles in size.
brush with egg yolk and optional topping (equal parts sugar, flour and margarine, mix together with fork until it crumbles)
bake at 375 about 30-40 minutes.

ENJOY!!!